Rebuilding Democratic Trust in the Age of AI Disinformation

Insights from Dr. Jacob’s Athens Democracy Forum Speech

When trust breaks, democracy follows.
That was the central message Dr. Jacob delivered at the Athens Democracy Forum—a message shaped by his own childhood in Nigeria, where he witnessed how quickly democratic hope can collapse into fear when citizens lose faith in those who govern them.

His 10-minute speech is a powerful reminder of what erodes democracy today. Not only political failures. Not only institutional dysfunction. But the slow, deep corrosion of trust, accelerated by a digital environment where AI-driven disinformation can distort shared reality at an unprecedented scale.

This is the challenge the Disinformation Observatory, created by the Global Centre for Rehumanising Democracy (GCRD) in partnership with Sensika, is designed to confront.

You can watch Dr. Jacob’s full speech in the embedded video below.
What follows is a concise breakdown of its core themes.

Democracies Break Long Before They Collapse

Dr. Jacob made one point with clarity: democracy rarely dies in dramatic moments. It dies quietly, in the minds of citizens who no longer believe their leaders act in their interest.

He described the signs he learned to recognise early in life:

• When people trust the military more than elected officials.
• When cynicism becomes the dominant civic emotion.
• When leaders’ actions no longer align with the values they claim to represent.
• When people welcome “strong” alternatives because they’ve lost hope in democratic processes.

These signals appeared in Nigeria before the 1983 coup, and they appear today across multiple regions. Polling from institutions like Pew Research shows stark gaps between trust in democratic representatives and trust in security institutions. That imbalance destabilises the moral contract that allows democratic systems to function.

Trust doesn’t disappear overnight. It dissolves through repeated disappointment, until citizens stop defending democracy because they no longer feel it defends them.

AI Disinformation Accelerates the Erosion of Trust

In his speech, Dr. Jacob made the connection between collapsing trust and the modern media environment:

“We are not just fighting false information. We are fighting for the possibility of truth itself.”

AI-powered disinformation does more than spread lies. It fragments the shared reality democracies depend on. Generative tools can imitate authoritative voices, fabricate persuasive narratives, and replicate them across platforms at a speed no human system can match.

The danger is not only manipulation—it is disorientation. When citizens cannot tell what is real, they lose confidence in institutions, leaders, and even in one another.

This is why visibility into narrative environments matters more than ever.
It is no longer enough to know what people are saying; democracies need to understand how narratives form, spread, and mutate in real time.

This is precisely where Sensika’s media intelligence technology plays a critical role, powering large-scale monitoring that supports initiatives like the Disinformation Observatory.

Beyond Technical Solutions: The Need for Moral Infrastructure

A crucial argument from Dr. Jacob was that technical responses alone cannot repair democratic decline.

Disinformation is a technological problem, but trust is a human one.

He described “moral infrastructure” as the foundation on which democratic trust is built:

• Leaders whose values and actions are aligned.
• Institutions that reward integrity, not performance.
• Public servants capable of genuine presence rather than political posturing.
• Systems designed not only to manage power, but to cultivate responsibility.

These are the areas GCRD focuses on: contemplative leadership formation, system renewal, and strategic mediation. These programs address the human side of democratic resilience—the dimension that cannot be coded, automated, or regulated into existence.

But rebuilding trust also requires understanding the informational environment in which democratic relationships now live.

That bridge between moral integrity and digital visibility is where the partnership between GCRD and Sensika becomes essential.

Why GCRD and Sensika Built the Disinformation Observatory

The Disinformation Observatory exists because democratic trust is shaped across two interconnected domains:

1. The human domain — moral leadership and democratic practice

This is GCRD’s work: transforming the inner and outer capacities of leaders and strengthening systems that make integrity possible.

2. The digital domain — narratives, manipulation, and public perception

This is where Sensika provides the technological foundation.

Using Sensika’s real-time media intelligence engine, the Observatory:

• Tracks how narratives evolve across digital and traditional media
• Identifies coordinated or unusual patterns of amplification
• Detects early signs of trust breakdown in public discourse
• Provides cross-lingual monitoring for regions where manipulation is common
• Surfaces indicators of disinformation before they influence mainstream debate

For readers who want to explore the narrative research emerging from this work, the Observatory publishes updates and analysis in its reports section.

Together, GCRD’s human-centered approach and Sensika’s large-scale monitoring create a combined capability that addresses both sides of the democratic trust crisis.

It is not enough to counter falsehoods once they spread.
Democracies need to understand why certain narratives resonate and where trust is already breaking.

This is the mission of the Observatory.

A Call to Rebuild the Foundations of Democratic Trust

Dr. Jacob’s message in Athens is a call to clarity and courage. Democracies cannot assume trust—they must cultivate it. They must protect it. And in an age of AI-accelerated manipulation, they must understand how trust fractures in real time.

The Disinformation Observatory, powered by Sensika’s monitoring capabilities, is one step toward that future: a space where democratic trust can be studied, strengthened, and defended.

Watch the full 10-minute speech below to hear Dr. Jacob’s message in his own words.