With AI Nobody Knows You're A Dog

In 1993, Peter Steiner published a cartoon in The New Yorker with the caption, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." It grew to be an internet meme and captured many of the benefits – and drawbacks – of internet anonymity. The benefits include internet businesses not being capable of discriminating against individuals the same way brick-and-mortar might. There can be more freedom to express diverging opinions. The downsides, of course, are becoming more apparent every day: the rise of fake news, disinformation, and the ability for people to say things they really ought not to say, with impunity.