As the internet becomes flooded with cheap content, discerning truth from falsehood will turn into a Herculean task. A deluge of untrustworthy content threatens to drown out the voices of credibility.
It’s under these circumstances we can imagine a revival in the value of print.
Content printed with ink on dead trees could gain a new kind of premium and cachet that would be counter to every trend of the last 20 years. The reason for this counter-trend is that print will bring with it “proof of trust.”
Drawing inspiration from the world of economics, specifically from the “proof of work” concept in Bitcoin, “proof of trust” hinges on the simple idea that value can be derived from provable effort.
Gold has been valued by humans for over 5,000 years. Part of the reason it has held this value is that the element cannot be produced easily. Despite the best efforts of many, the only way to get gold is to dig it out of the ground. Holding a piece of gold in your hand is evidence that somebody somewhere put in the time, effort and labor to extract it from the earth. Since gold can’t exist in our economy without that effort being exerted, it keeps the element relatively scarce and valuable.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin requires computer “miners” to dedicate energy and resources to solve complex equations in order to earn the cryptocurrency. Just like gold, the existence of even the smallest fraction of a Bitcoin is tangible evidence that energy was expended. This is partly what gives Bitcoin authenticity and value.
Just as gold and Bitcoin hold value because they require capital and labor to initially generate, writing that demands capital investment and human work to be distributed carries a kind of inherent worth, too.
Print media possesses an intrinsic cost that cannot be circumvented. The industrial process of printing necessitates paper, ink and distribution, making it a natural gatekeeper of credibility. While generative artificial intelligence content may flood the digital realm because it’s cheap to produce and distribution is free, it would require a financial investment for that content to see the light of print. This economic reality acts as a filter, separating the wheat from the chaff.
This is the essence of proof of trust.
There is one important exception to this rule: print on demand. Amazon’s print-on-demand books, for instance, offer a low-cost avenue for content creators to publish their work without an initial financial risk. They only print when a book is ordered, hence the name and the guarantee of profit. That’s exactly why this model is already being targeted by generative AI for exploitation, with dangerous consequences. An alarming number of books on topics such as mushroom hunting have been generated by AI, ready to be printed on demand with potentially fatal results.
Print-on-demand content is usually easy to identify, which means the lessons that the public absorbs about trust and cheap content online will eventually easily apply to this unique print subset. In short, “buyer beware.”
What truly captures the essence of proof of trust is non-demand-driven print, mass-produced without a specific buyer in mind. The classic broadsheet daily or weekly. This mass media, devoid of individualized intent, requires a capital investment, signaling that the content within holds value, at the very least to the producer. By recognizing this investment, the consuming public can establish an immediate and direct line to trust — a trust that is authenticated by the very presence of content chosen to be put in print.
Everything old is new again.
In the battle for credibility in the age of generative AI, the tangible nature of print, rooted in the labor and expense of production, serves as a great proof of trust.
Am I suggesting that print will rise and digital will fall? No! Am I encouraging news organizations to divest from digital and lean all-in on print? No! This is more of a thought experiment than anything else, but one I keep coming around to.
While generative AI will not likely change any of the major consumer trends we’ve seen over the last 30 years of digitization, it’ll give one extra checkmark of value in the “print” column that we should consider.
