Last month, members of the World Leadership Alliance – Club de Madrid hosted a round table to discuss the future of democracy. The group is currently working on their Next Generation Democracy initiative, which seeks to host discussions on the current state and future of democracy, and the challenges it faces worldwide. The core topics were “populism, political mistrust, and misinformation in the digital era.” One participant of the discussion, Newco CEO John Battalle, said that “two years ago we were not worried, now we are. There are a lot of elections this year and also a lot of intention to disrupt them.” A central topic was the use of social media for information campaigns and election interference, a topic that is especially timely now in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica story. You can watch the round table here and listen to the great speeches on the topic given by participants.
AIWS and Boston Global Forum are working closely with Club de Madrid and their Next Generation Democracy initiative. We believe that artificial intelligence will have a significant impact on governance and information. If used beneficially, AI can assist in identifying, removing, and preventing fake news. We are also honored to work with Former Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of the Club de Madrid and a member of our own Board of Thinkers.