Synthetic Reality: Generative Artificial Intelligence, Hyperreality, and the Collapse of Digital Trust in AI-Mediated Society

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and generative technologies is fundamentally transforming digital communication, media production, and human interaction. This research examines how AI-generated synthetic systems—including deepfakes, synthetic media, conversational AI, algorithmic personalization, and emotionally adaptive digital environments—are reshaping human perception of reality, authenticity, trust, and identity within increasingly AI-mediated societies. Using an interdisciplinary framework integrating artificial intelligence studies, media theory, sociology, psychology, epistemology, and philosophy of technology, this study analyzes the structural relationship between synthetic systems and the transformation of contemporary human experience. The research investigates the emergence of synthetic reality as a condition in which algorithmically generated representations increasingly mediate communication, emotional interaction, informational exposure, and social understanding. Particular attention is given to the societal consequences of deepfake technologies, misinformation ecosystems, digital trust erosion, hyperreality, cognitive distortion, emotional dependency, and identity transformation. The study further explores how algorithmic systems shape perception through behavioral personalization, emotional reinforcement, and computational mediation, contributing to fragmented realities and epistemological instability within digital environments. The findings suggest that generative AI systems extend beyond conventional technological tools and increasingly function as infrastructures that shape social reality, influence cognition, and mediate emotional and cultural experience. The research argues that synthetic systems destabilize traditional mechanisms of verification and authenticity while restructuring the cognitive and social conditions through which individuals interpret truth, construct identity, and engage with collective reality. Additionally, the study highlights long-term civilizational risks associated with synthetic environments, including social fragmentation, institutional distrust, cognitive dependency, and weakened epistemological resilience. This paper concludes that the rise of synthetic reality represents not only a technological transformation but also a broader historical shift in the relationship between humanity, perception, and mediated existence. As AI-generated systems increasingly shape informational, emotional, and social environments, preserving authenticity, critical cognition, human autonomy, and shared reality may become among the most significant ethical and societal challenges of the twenty-first century.