As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the information environment, societies face a new and urgent challenge: how to preserve trust in public information, civic discourse, and democratic institutions in an age of deepfakes, synthetic media, and large-scale manipulation.
AIWS Information Trust Standards are proposed by the Boston Global Forum as a pioneering framework to help address this challenge. The standards are designed to establish practical principles and mechanisms for trusted civic information in the AI Age, including:
- provenance by default
- synthetic media labeling
- deepfake defense
- trusted public communications
- civic platform accountability
- redress and restoration mechanisms
- public epistemic resilience
The core idea is simple but profound: a society cannot sustain trust in institutions if it cannot sustain trust in information.
AIWS Information Trust Standards are part of the broader AIWS Trust Architecture, which seeks to make trust in the AI Age not merely an aspiration, but something that can be defined, operationalized, measured, defended, and strengthened. In this sense, the standards are intended not only to respond to misinformation and deepfakes, but also to help protect the epistemic commons on which democracy, education, and social stability depend.
These ideas are also expected to be highlighted in Panel 2 of the Boston Global Forum conference, America at 250: A Beacon for the AI Age, to be held at Harvard Loeb House on May 1, 2026.
As BGF advances The Beacon Process, AIWS Information Trust Standards are expected to become one of the key pilot domains for democratic AI governance and trusted international cooperation.
Please download the AIWS Trust Architecture White Paper here
