The mathematical management of sincerity. Algorithms and veridiction

Michel Foucault defined veridiction as the sociolinguistic device that discerns verisimilitude, that which can potentially be believed, consisting of a system mixed with forms of sincerity and authorization. However, as an authoritative device, its “systems of credit” have been profoundly transformed during recent decades in parallel with the establishment of the new interdependent, globalized communicational sphere. The forms of sincerity, naturalness and authenticity have become an intrinsic part of the mathematical languages intended for public competence, blurring the classic form of imposing truthfulness based on the balance between interiority (sincerity) and exteriority (authority). Artificial Intelligence algorithms applied to the mechanisms of justice and Social Media are proposed more and more as the arbiters of honesty and users’/citizens’ reputations, raising serious questions about how traditional systems of credibility have mutated.