The Reconstructability Gap: How AI-Generated Narratives Acquire Authority Without Records

This paper describes a structural property of AI-mediated information systems. Under decision-adjacent conditions, probabilistic systems produce authoritative narrative outputs that influence beliefs and actions while leaving no durable, attributable, or reconstructable record. This creates a reconstructability gap that becomes visible only after reliance has occurred. The phenomenon is independent of domain, correctness, or intent and arises from the interaction between conversational generation, uncertainty compression, and the absence of institutional recordkeeping.