Societal trust—confidence in institutions, experts, and each other—is foundational to functional societies. Trust enables collective action: people follow laws they don’t individually verify, use currency they don’t personally back, and accept election outcomes they didn’t directly witness. When trust erodes, these coordination mechanisms weaken, and societies become less able to address collective challenges.
Trust has declined substantially in most democracies since 2000. Trust in government, media, science, and each other has dropped 30-50% in the United States and many European countries. This decline has multiple causes: institutional failures, political polarization, media fragmentation, and—increasingly—the information environment that social media and AI create.
AI poses both risks and opportunities for trust. AI-generated disinformation and deepfakes can further erode trust in information. AI-enabled manipulation can damage interpersonal trust. But AI could also help rebuild trust by improving institutional performance, enabling transparency, and facilitating communication. The net effect depends on how AI develops and is governed.