A selfie is meant to tell us, your audience, a story about you and the journey you’re on. Selfies are a great tool for telling stories, in fact. One selfie can say a thousand words, and then some.

But a selfie taken and then modified to lie to the audience about your story or your journey is simply a fiction. People create fictions to either lie to themselves or to lie to others. Sometimes they’re not about lying to the audience but just manipulating them.

People’s viewpoints and perceptions are malleable. It’s easy to trick people into thinking something is true. Couple this with the fact a lot of people are gullible and shallow, and suddenly a selfie becomes a sales tool. A marketing gimmick. Now, finally, take advances in AI to make it easier, faster, and more accessible to make highly believable fictions and yes, as you said, the selfie loses its value.

But that’s always been the case since and even before Photoshop. Since and before the silicon microprocessor.

All AI is going to do for selfies is what Photoshop has done for social media “Influencers” — enable more fiction with the goal to transfer wealth from other people.