AUTHENTICITY IS IN CRISIS MODE
It starts like a bad joke: Three global brands, a soul singer, a senator, and Tyra Banks walk into a conference…
I went to SXSW Sydney chasing disruption, innovation, a glimpse of the future. And I got that in spades. Four rooms, four wildly different sessions, deliberately chosen for maximum perspective spread.
But every single one had one shiny thing in common: AUTHENTICITY✨
Everyone used the word.
No one meant the same thing.
And lurking above all of it? A quiet discomfort. A shadow of scepticism, fear, intrigue and eye-roll around AI - sometimes named, often avoided, always present.
And somewhere between global strategy decks and Tyra’s push-up bra, it hit me: Authenticity✨ might just be in crisis.
Here's why:
Session 1 - Global Brands & The Sanitised Authenticity✨
This session preached brand promise: be who you are everywhere.
But the subtext was:
“Do your due diligence.”
“Don’t make mistakes.”
“You only get one shot.”
AKA: Adapt everything. Risk nothing.
But here’s the unspoken truth: You don’t scale globally without systems. You don’t get consistency in 95 markets without…automation, data modelling, and yes - AI.
So really, it’s: Stay true to your promise whilst quietly using AI to localise, translate, optimise and simulate that promise at scale.
Which leads to the uncomfortable question: If authenticity✨ is performed using data models… how “authentic” is it?
This is authenticity✨ as enterprise, not honesty.
Session 2 - Teddy Swims & The Earned Authenticity✨
The only person who openly admitted he uses AI…and somehow felt the most human.
Teddy embodied authenticity✨ instead of sermonising on it.
He was transparent: “If you use it the correct way, I think AI is a beautiful tool… truly amazing.”
He wasn’t puritan, and he had the balls to say: yes, I use the tools, and here’s why.
Teddy was authenticity✨ as humility, not for performance.
Session 3 - Youth, Democracy & Performed Sincerity
“Young people aren’t disengaged. They’re disillusioned.
This panel longed for renewed trust, civic engagement and the political sincerity that has been lost in a digital age. They blamed social media and AI for poisoning discourse and for eroding trust (alongside politicians just not doing their f**king jobs, of course).
But the next gen isn’t scared of AI, in fact they’re basically being raised by it. They live on algorithmic platforms and can smell bullshit a mile off – because they’re also the most adept at performing authenticity✨ for the camera.
So, when every political moment is rehearsed for Instagram rather than delivered in Parliament, it's no wonder young people scroll straight past.
It’s democracy as authenticity✨ theatre, not political action.
Session 4 - Tyra Banks & Mythic Authenticity✨
Tyra did not acknowledge AI. Not once.
Instead, she talked: authenticity, reinvention, haters, Melbourne vs Sydney, breasts, delusion, her mother, ice cream, haters again.
Tyra doesn’t claim authenticity✨, she just embodies the myth that is Tyra Banks.
She knows the role and how to perform being THE (authentic✨) Tyra Banks - which, ironically, might make her the most honest of them all (?!).
I rolled my eyes.
I took notes anyway
Because Tyra understands something that many don’t: “Different is better than better.”
She was authenticity✨ as archetype, but not honestly.
So let’s talk about it: AI vs Authenticity✨ because across all four stages, two forces clashed:
AI: scale, speed, data, optimisation
Authenticity✨: honesty, humanity, reality, trust
But no one dared say the obvious: You can’t demand authenticity✨ while denying the tools you’re already using.
Spellcheck is AI.
Captions are AI.
Auto-sync, filters, templates - all AI.
Authenticity✨ isn’t dying because of AI, it’s dying because we’re performing it and pretending we’re not.
We’re curating “realness.” Brands are designing “mistakes.” Even “unedited” is an editing style. It’s all a mirage.
And if everything can be drafted, optimised, deepfaked, smized, and remixed…wtf even is authenticity✨ now?
Because on this, I actually think realness isn’t about being real anymore, it’s about being recognisable.
And maybe that’s the point (maybe?!)
We’ve all learned how to manufacture authenticity✨ - how to package honesty, pose vulnerability, edit “real life” until it feels aspirational but still believable. It’s a performance we’ve perfected.
But as the lines blur between human and machine, between truth and template, there’s one question left hanging in the algorithmic air:
Can AI do that for me too? 😜
This piece first appeared in Excessive Consumption - a weekly dispatch on culture, branding, politics and whatever other modern internet brain rot the algorithm has emotionally assigned me that week.
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