The question isn't whether AI can pass as human. It is whether humans can prove they're not AI.
Every online interaction starts with suspicion. That comment? Bot. That response? AI. That story? Generated. Humans must constantly perform humanity to be believed.
The Performance of Humanity
People overcompensate. They add typos to seem real. Share messy photos to prove existence. Make deliberate mistakes to signal authenticity. We're performing humanity for an audience that assumes we're machines.
The verification never ends. Captchas were the beginning. Now it's video calls, blue checks, "proof of human" tokens. Humanity became a credential requiring constant renewal.
Too polished? AI. Too helpful? Bot. Too consistent? Algorithm. We trust incompetence and distrust competence, because competence now looks synthetic.
We spent decades trying to make AI human. We succeeded so well that humans must prove they're not AI.
The machines don't need to pass as human anymore. Making humans fail at passing as themselves is enough.