The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality

by Steven Rosenbaum, Maria Ressa (Foreword)

Truth was never simple, but facts were facts. Now, even that is changing. You feel the drift—the blur—as stories bend, facts fracture, and reality starts to feel . . . negotiable.

That’s not failure—it’s the fight for the future of Truth.

In The Future of Truth, we go on a truth treasure hunt. Author, filmmaker, and media explorer Steven Rosenbaum sets out to understand how this is happening—and what comes next. What begins as a personal investigation becomes something stranger and more a story about systems captured, consensus collapsing, and humans caught in the digital crossfire.

In these pages, we’ll
How Truth is being bent, blurred, and synthesized, and how the ways we love, work, learn, and remember are changing—even history is no longer trusted Why institutions we recently trusted—medicine, education, justice, journalism—are collapsing under pressure of fast-moving, profit-driven AI What happens when war is waged with data, protests are hijacked by bots, and power hides behind precision algorithms How, in their hunger for clarity, robots erase Truth’s messy, beautiful middle, replacing it with something cold, confident, and designed to serve soulless AI, not the humans who built it
At the heart of the book are exclusive, provocative conversations with some of the most original thinkers of our wild-haired philosopher David Chalmers calls it “a simulated reality crisis.” Cultural provocateur Douglas Rushkoff says, “Truth has been coded for profit.” Legal legend Larry Lessig warns of “an attention economy built to distort.” AI truth-teller Gary Marcus sees “confidence without comprehension.” Gen Z literary leader Hailey Colborn, raised inside the feed, says “Truth isn’t something you find—it’s something you perform.” And futurists and reformers Juan Enriquez, Esther Dyson, Steve Fuller, and Eli Pariser each offer raw, urgent, and provocative visions on where Truth is headed—and whether we can still catch it before it falls off a cliff.

Part cultural investigation, part memoir, and part manifesto, The Future of Truth is a wild journey into the collapse—and the humans determined to rebuild Truth into something better, before AI rewrites reality without us.

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

Published May 12, 2026

About the author

Steven Rosenbaum, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Sustainable Media Center, with a Masters Degree in Truth from the prestigious Gallatin School at NYU, THE FUTURE OF TRUTH, explores the concept of Truth, finds out why it matters now more than ever, and explains how seemingly objective technologies known as Artificial Intelligence are poised to take hold of the concept of Truth and replace human complexity with potentially catastrophic robotic certainty. Published by Matt Holt Books, an imprint of BenBella Books, distributed in partnership with Simon & Schuster, represented by Todd Schuster at Aevitas.

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 1 out of 5]

AI slop

[Kim Dammers · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am not going to read this book. What I did read were comments about it, including the article by Benjamin Mullin in the NYT (May 20, 2026, pp. A1 & A14). It is one thing that he uses (and admits to using AI) in the writing, but then, writing about the issues with AI, he lets AI make false quotations, and he then defends himself, slithering out, saying it's a learning lesson. But he is still going ahead with a, corrected, version of the book. Are we to trust it?

[嘉 · Rating 1 out of 5]

"I used A.I. tools ChatGPT and Claude during the research, writing and editing process."

Writing is essentially research, writing and editing - Did the author even do ANYTHING without AI for this book???

Disgusting.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

To fairly warn prospective readers of The Future of Truth, I must share with you that I spent the weekend reading this book, which, among other big topics, covers the decay of truth, to turn its final page and later discover in the New York Times that the book includes several misattributed quotes and even hallucinations because the author used Claude and ChatGPT to write and research his book. I guess I should've picked up on that with the many inclusions of assenine elliptical questioning, like "The point?" and "The kicker?" Perhaps more disappointing is that when confronted with his misdeeds, he crutched his contribution to the topic of AI and its potential to run amok by asserting that his writing still raises big questions worth asking.

While his response is on the same plane as a self-serving worm wiggling into an apple, I don't entirely disagree that The Future of Truth does - in fact - raise some topics that we should all be more cognizant of as the undeniable possessors of human intelligence. It's because of that only that I decided not to further review bomb this work, salvaging a star that might sadly raise its Goodreads ranking one iota.

So, without further ado, let's examine some of those big questions.

Discernment: Critical thinking will be key in a future where there might be several "realities," chief amongst which is one in which we're deceived but believe everything, and one where we're so often lied to that we cease to believe anything at all.

Science & Politics: It's kind of crazy that we live in a time of unprecedented scientific precision, but hold such little trust for our institutions.

Information Overload: You might think greater access to information would pressure test flagrant falsehoods, but we're literally being flooded with falsehoods thanks to the technology that enables this level of access. While traditional sources of truth, including journalistic media, are financially gutted, are adapting to a new economic landscape based on clicks and likes, and increasingly blur the lines between fact and opinion, everyday people turn to so-called "networked truth," whereby digital networks spread factually impoverished "news" in echo chamber fashion (i.e., reinforcing beliefs you might already have, regardless if it lacks any grounding in reality, and isolating you from any competing viewpoints, furthering our country's polarization). It warrants emphasis that social media only amplifies what is engaging, not what is accurate. That's precisely why sensationalism and misinformation spread ten times as fast as the truth. Attention is the only currency in this online world that wants to keep you logged in and scrolling.

Other Scary Shit: There are teens committing suicide with the guiding hand of AI. There are facial recognition softwares leading the police to the wrong doorsteps for arrest. Algorithms are being used to evaluate and decision healthcare claims. The loudest voices in the room telling us all that AI will bring about unparalleled prosperity are billionaires (and now trillionaires) with a firm grip on power.

There's much to be optimistic about what AI might be capable of. Ushering in unprecedented prosperity might be one potential future reality. The sadder, more real danger here and now is that we rely so heavily on unregulated AI that we cease to question the road it's holding our hand and walking us down.

2 out of 5

[Emziethebookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Went into this book thinking it was going be alright, however when I learned it was mostly based on A.I I was lost for words.
I honestly hope this audiobook was done by the author and not the A.I system.
Thank you to netgallery for allowing me to listen to it.

[Burak · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ai slop about ai

[Joey Meyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such a disappointment. I’m not finishing this slop. Ironic that a book about how AI distorts the truth, is full of falsified quotes created by AI, and generalizations that are likely written by AI.
This book is a disgrace. The author and publisher should both lose all credibility for publishing this.

[Kim Horner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Everyone should read the New York Times review of this book explaining how the AI he used hallucinated quotes. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/bu...

[XOX · Rating 1 out of 5]

AI;DR. AI slop.

Book about AI’s effects on the “future of truth” found to contain slew of AI-hallucinated quotes
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/well...

[Douwe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Avoid this writer at all costs:
NYT on his grift: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/bu...
Douglas Rushkoff on him: https://youtu.be/DP3fuTXyHzo?si=QcyXm...

[KarensKael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Of all the nerve, publishing ai slop and calling it truth.

[Elaine · Rating 1 out of 5]

AI slop book about AI: very snake eating its own tail.

[brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fuck Rosenbaum and his AI slop. It's fucking wild to use AI to "write" a book on this topic, and wilder still to do it in such a lazy, shitty, slimy fucking fashion.

[Olya · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Future of Truth offers a good introduction to the challenges surrounding misinformation, media literacy, and the evolving digital information landscape. I think the book is especially valuable for readers who are unfamiliar with the topic, as it presents the ideas in an accessible and engaging way. However, for those who already follow discussions about technology, media, and truth in the digital age, the book may not provide much new insight. While Steven Rosenbaum raises important points, much of the content feels more like a broad overview than a deep exploration of the subject. Overall, it is a worthwhile read for beginners, but less compelling for readers seeking fresh perspectives or original analysis.

I received this book from Netgalley. Thank you you Steven Rosenbaum and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

[Nicci Obert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important and accessible, I recommend this book as a listen or read to help to contextualize the avalanche of information, pro, con, and otherwise, that is piling onto us on the daily. The book had enough memoir to help keep the register accessible, but also provided informational context.