Can federalism save public trust in the age of AI fakery?
Federalism is not just a constitutional structure. It is trust architecture.
We are entering an era in which seeing is no longer believing.
Artificial intelligence can now generate convincing video, audio, documents, and official-looking statements nearly indistinguishable from reality. They are not easy-to-recognize scams anyone would catch, but emotionally charged, targeted and deliberate fabrications widely believed and spread like wildfire.
This is often described as a technology problem. It isn’t. It’s a governance problem. The real danger is not that bad actors use technology to lie. It is that institutions are losing the public trust that comes from verifiable truth.
In a healthy society, most people do not need to verify everything personally but rely on systems, authorities, and institutions that have earned credibility over time. When those institutions become opaque or unaccountable, the social contract weakens. Into that vacuum rush rumor and worse: manipulation and bad actors looking to further destabilize American political life.
The Watergate scandal of the early 1970s is a defining moment in the erosion of public trust, exposing corruption at the highest levels of government. Watergate altered how the presidency is viewed, seeding a skepticism toward executive power that has never fully faded.
More recent trust eroding episodes on both sides of the Washington, DC aisle involve disgraced former U.S. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey (Democrat) and U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (Republican). Then there are falls from grace by several evangelical leaders and the Catholic Church’s clergy scandals.
Corporate malfeasance in companies like Enron, or major financial institutions like Lehman Brothers, whose toxic lending policies contributed to the 2008 housing crisis, further weakened confidence in systems once assumed trustworthy.
None of these developments took place transparently, nor did they arise within today’s tech environment where artificial intelligence can make the truth increasingly more difficult to discern. That makes it all the more important to understand that AI is merely accelerating a breakdown that was already underway.
The central question now is not “Can we detect what’s fake?” It is “Who do people still trust?”
And that is where public policy — and federalism — becomes decisive.
For most of American history, trust was built locally. People knew town officials, attended meetings and projects with their own eyes. They could verify claims not through social media, but through lived experience.
As more power, money, and decision-making have migrated to Washington, governance has become more abstract, more bureaucratic, and more distant. National politics and national media have become more theatrical and more polarized, all while pulling people away from where they can make the biggest impact, in their families, neighborhoods, and communities.
This is the worst possible combination in an age of AI. When authority feels remote, and information feels manipulable, people stop believing both.
That’s why it’s so important to devolve power back towards states and local communities. Not as an ideological slogan, but as a practical defense of liberty and a push to improve the bonds of civil society.
People are less likely to believe nonsense when they can see and verify claims and have personal knowledge of the face on the fake meme. They are less likely to accept sweeping false narratives when their own experience contradicts them, and they are more likely to trust institutions they can see and question.
Federalism is not just a constitutional structure. It is a trust architecture that rebalances society toward credibility.
Local and state officials play one of the most important roles in restoring public trust than they may realize. In an era when Washington feels disconnected from real life, the burden of institutional legitimacy increasingly falls downward — as they should.
The most important infrastructure in our republic is not digital, but human.
That means radical transparency in how decisions are made and include verifiable processes and clear and consistent public communication. It also means treating public understanding as core infrastructure.
Technology alone will not save us. No AI detector will be perfect. No platform will stop all false content. The only durable defense is a public that knows how its institutions actually function and can see them operating honestly.
So what is a local official to do other than wringing their hands over flying falsehoods?
First, local governments should establish a single, publicized, always-updated “source of truth” for public information and treat it as critical infrastructure, not public relations. When false AI-generated content spreads, citizens should already know where to look for what is real. Build a website and social media presence — and tout it loudly.
Second, officials should make government processes observable. Streaming meetings online and publishing easily-desipherable descriptions of projects create trust and makes it harder for bad actors to promulgate successful false information.
Lastly, governments should anticipate AI fakery, because it’s coming, no matter what government office you are in or the elected position you are seeking. You must practice a preemptive debunking campaign with a deliberate public affairs strategy educating the public by providing simple techniques for verifying sources and official information. A public must be empowered with the tools for a personal “No Source, No Share” policy.
If we succeed in rebuilding trust from the local level up, the next decade could see a renewal of self-government with stronger communities, more resilient institutions, and fewer unpleasant arguments on social media.
If we fail, the alternative is more centralization and further detachment of citizens from the systems that govern them. History suggests that societies that believe in lies and propaganda become more controllable and certainly, less free. Totalitarian takeovers are fueled not only by brute power but enough willing or even passive observers.
AI will be part of this story either way, but it must be kept in its place as a tool of veracity, not a propaganda machine. This cannot be done unless we actively do it.
State and local officials have a unique opportunity under our federalist system to rebuild a culture of trust that starts where people actually live.
The most important infrastructure in our republic is not digital, but human. Officials can create a “buy local” government public affairs plan with the same tools AI quacks use to beat them at their own game and recalibrate the public trust. And that is something no algorithm can manufacture.
Kerri Toloczko is Director of Public Affairs for Proven Media Solutions and has been involved in public policy, communications and coalition management in Washington, DC and across the country for over 30 years.
