Crime novelist Sarah Bailey says her deep dive into artificial intelligence for her latest book left her more terrified than she expected. In a recent essay, Bailey explained that while she did not use AI to write her novel Click, she researched how technology impacts detectives, journalists, and criminals. The project, she said, gave her more than she bargained for.
Bailey originally planned to write a historical crime novel set in the mid-1990s, avoiding the complexities of modern technology. But after rewatching the film Zodiac, she became fascinated by how the unidentified serial killer communicated with police and media in the 1960s. She wondered how the Zodiac would operate today with modern communication platforms, and that idea became the basis for Click.
Her research included studying the dark web, meeting with detectives and journalists, and learning about cybercrime investigations, deep fakes, and stolen identities. Bailey said she was already concerned about AI, but after the research she was 'comprehensively disturbed'. What scared her most was not scams or stalking, but how technology is eroding what she calls our 'trust compass'.
Bailey described the 'trust compass' as a psychological construct with four categories: trust in ourselves, trust in others, trust in a higher power, and trust in fate. She believes AI is eroding the first three and making people apathetic about the fourth. She noted that the phrase 'I saw it with my own eyes' is no longer reliable, as fake images and audio messages can deceive even careful observers.
Bailey warned that AI-generated content is teaching people to doubt everything they see and hear, breaking fundamental reality anchors and leading to mass gaslighting. She said this compromises faith in institutions and each other, leaving people uncertain about what is real.
