---
title: "Right to reality"
chunk: 1/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_reality"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:24:10.893465+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

The right to reality refers to the right to consume organic content as opposed to content created by artificial intelligence, or more broadly speaking, to experience life and the world as they are, not through simulations and simulacra. It was once defined as "the latest in a series of novel rights set forth in response to a sizable jump in technology".
A right to reality can also refer to the right to consume real news in opposition to fake news, as well as the right to receive information when in a news desert.

== Proposed definitions ==
A 2024 article by Digital Frontier describes Newcastle University Law scholar Lilian Edwards as an early proponent of the right to reality, an idea she came across during a 2019 lecture at the Turing Institute, when an attendee asked her if the younger generation were  "getting easier with the idea of unreality" while not "knowing what canonical reality is", and that made her reflect on the possibility of "reality" being a human right, much like privacy or freedom of speech.
In an article for a 2025 special edition of Stanford Social Innovation Review Brasil, Brazilian proponent Eduardo Saron defined the right to reality as "the right to a non-distorted and authentic perception of reality"; he later elaborates that it is "the possibility to live with density, bond and acting, in contrast with those who, deprived of these anchors, are pushed into isolation, insecurity and precarious shelter in the virtual world" and also saw it as a potential human right.
In an article for Folha de S.Paulo, he also defined it as the right to "experience what cannot be reduced to data or anticipated by statistical models. The right to err, vacillate, improvise. To exist outside of the script." He further advocated for the expansion of our capacity to analyze  and question what we see instead of just absorbing it. According to him, the right to reality would contemplate the idea of 'neurorights' proposed by some researchers.
Saron goes on to explain that generative AI will foster what he calls "synthetic inequality", according to which a part of the population will experience reality in person, as it is, while others will have their experiences more and more mediated by screens, data and simulations. Saron believes that while it seems there's a process towards universal access to the digital world, it could be an illusive and simulated one for many. This could be specially problematic for children, as some would grow up exploring the world with their five senses while others would have their lives mostly filtered by screens. Drawing inspiration from Italian philosopher Luciano Floridi's onlife concept, he believes people lacking discernment, agency or critical capacity are excluded from reality.
He compares the relationship of humans and AI with the concept of Simulacra and Simulation by French philosopher Jean Baudrillard and defends living in a reliable world and preserving subjective experiences as principles to be ensured, specially because the stimuli that the human brain processes in order to build one's perception of reality can be manipulated with mis- and disinformation. The philosophical questions raised by the film The Matrix also permeate Saron's reasoning, including the allegory of the cave, with Saron stating that the cave is no longer rocky, but algorithmic.

== Possible justifications for a right to reality ==
Lawfare senior editor and AI Innovation and Law specialist Kevin Frazier analyzed in a 2023 article that the role of social media platforms as marketplaces of ideas would grow in the following years and that they would probably be full of AI-altered content that users would not be able to distinguish from "organic" content, since the former is increasingly similar to the latter. Indeed, a 2022 report by Europol estimated that 90% of online material would be produced by AI by 2026, while Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies's Timothy Shoup predicted in the same year that 99%-99.9% of content would be generated by robots by 2025-2030 in case LLMs soar.
Frazier also mentioned a study according to which efforts to help users in detection of artificial content would often backfire and even increase skepticism about the nature of content. Edwards said in September 2024 that people are facing increasing difficulty in telling what's real from what's fake since the rise of political deepfakes.
In an article for Folha de S.Paulo, Eduardo Saron mentions one study by IA Pearl-Censuswide according to which 41% of Generation Z trust AI more than humans and 56% of millennials feel more comfortable asking questions to AIs instead of co-workers. In another study by Microsoft-Carnegie Mellon University, the rise in AI trust could be related to a decrease in critical thinking.

The right to reality may come also as a broader response to AI-related issues, since simply labeling AI content as such may not be enough to tackle broader problems such as diminishing trust in institutions and political processes.