AI to influence what we like

Authenticity Just Became Optional

Silicon Valley may have crossed a line.

A startup called Doublespeed, founded by 21-year-old Zuhair Lakhani and backed through Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program, is promoting a future where companies no longer need real influencers. Instead, they can deploy thousands of AI-generated personas designed to appear authentic, build audiences, and influence purchasing decisions at scale.

Need a retired mother in Phoenix who loves your skincare product?

Need a Gen Z skateboarder in Atlanta who suddenly can’t stop talking about your brand?

Those personas can now be generated, managed, and deployed automatically.

The technology itself is impressive.

Its implications are far more concerning.

The Internet Runs on Trust

For decades, we’ve made subconscious decisions every day based on one assumption:

The people we’re interacting with are real.

That assumption is beginning to disappear.

When every comment, review, recommendation, or influencer could simply be software, the internet stops becoming a place built around human interaction and starts becoming a manufactured reality.

Virality becomes engineered.

Popularity becomes purchased.

Consensus becomes programmable.

The Cybersecurity Problem Nobody Is Talking About

From a cybersecurity perspective, this is where the real danger begins.

If artificial intelligence can convincingly imitate a trusted lifestyle influencer today, it can just as easily impersonate:

• Your CEO

• Your attorney

• Your financial advisor

• Your IT administrator

• A trusted vendor

• A coworker

Today’s synthetic influencer becomes tomorrow’s synthetic identity.

Instead of convincing you to buy skincare, the next AI persona may convince an employee to reset a password, approve a wire transfer, or surrender their Microsoft 365 credentials.

Social engineering has always relied on trust.

AI simply scales trust manipulation faster than humans ever could.

Digital Skepticism Is Becoming a Survival Skill

We’re entering an era where “seeing is believing” no longer applies.

Organizations will need to verify identities, authenticate communications, and educate employees to question interactions that once seemed perfectly normal.

The greatest cybersecurity challenge of the next decade may not be malware.

It may be determining whether the person on the other side of the conversation even exists.

70% of all cyber attacks target small businesses, I can help protect yours.

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