Early in the morning, you open your eyes, and the first thing you look at is the notifications in your phone that you receive while sleeping. Immediately, you are connected to a global network of people sharing their thoughts constantly. It is a human need to have a form of connection to others. In this global network, you can be part of two groups. In the first group, you post on social media regularly, have a blog, or are a reporter for a local newspaper. In the second group, you check the news, reply to a text message or scroll through your Twitter feed. It has not been even a minute since you woke, and you are already part of a digital village, a global forum.

The Greeks would have called this forum the Agora. Imagine you are in Athens, walking towards a set of buildings with a market in the middle. The hustle and bustle are inevitable. Agoras are a busy place. You are surrounded by people trading, teaching, performing and speaking. You find it valuable and vital to know everything that is going on. The more information you have, the better decisions you can take. Nowadays, You do not have to make this journey to join Agora. Reach for the phone in your pocket, pay for your data plan and charge the battery. You are in the Agora immediately.

Words and their meaning make a group of people feel closer, with a purpose and a goal. Words help us to solve problems, create new and exciting ideas, and determine the future of generations. Communication is a human need. Since the early days of Greek society, humans have used Agoras to share their thoughts and spread their ideas. The Agoras gave individuals the power to influence others. Agoras allowed and attracted key people who would share the information they heard with others. Influential people realised there was no need to share an idea with every single person in society. It was enough to share it with key individuals who will spread it around.

Artificial Intelligence will become the next symbol of objectivity, transparency and fairness.

Much has not changed since the early days of the greek civilisation. The Internet gave politicians tools to communicate ideas with a group of people who would later spread their mindset to others. Politicians can not aim to talk to each of the 67.33 million citizens of the UK, but they can identify the physical or digital places, the Agoras, where debate takes place, share their ideas and await for people to spread them amongst members of their communities. The Internet gave birth to email, the web, newsletters, forums, blogs and social media. Each of these tools shapes different Agoras for different generations. Each social media platform is an Agora in itself that attracts certain individuals from society -these platforms are like clusters of people with certain characteristics in common. Donald Trump identified Twitter as the Agora with enough capacity to influence society. Inevitably, using Twitter for political campaigns impacted people’s trust in the social media platform. Trust is a fundamental element in the creation of an Agora.

It is inherent to human nature to create Agoras where they can gather together, share their thoughts and collect others’ ideas. Humans need to trust the place they feel is an Agora, so they visit it over and over again, sharing and collecting information for the development and progress of their communities and personal life. Politicians have been perspicacious in identifying the Generational Agoras and implanting their message. Take, for example, the scandal of Facebook-Cambridge analytics or the use of Twitter by Donald Trump to win the 2016 presidential elections. Each generation uses a different medium to communicate, create and socialise. Each generation makes its own Agora. The spread of fake news could explain the migration from old to new Agoras. Would you trust what is said on Twitter after Donald Trump’s political campaign?

Obama made good use of blogs and websites to run his presidential campaign. Donald Trump made great use of Twitter to spread his message and became president of the United States. What will be the next tool that politicians use to spread their message? What will be the next Agora? My first thought is TikTok. The following United States presidential election will give a glimpse into the role of social media in general elections. I think Artificial Intelligence will debut in presidential campaigns – test ChatGPT with this question ‘What should I think of Donald Trump?’. The focus will be on collecting data that support the claims and promises of a political candidate. Campaigners can focus on connecting with others while the bots will create the campaigning material.

Artificial Intelligence will become the next symbol of objectivity, transparency and fairness. A bot with artificial Intelligence can scan the web quicker than a journalist or a regular internet user and produce an objective outcome in a few paragraphs. Visit ChatGPT and Google and ask a question related to politics. ‘Should I trust Rishi Sunak?’ ‘Why do people vote Tories/Labour?’ I thought of the use of Artificial Intelligence in Politics when I watched the third episode of MH370: The Plain that Disappeared on Netflix. Mark Dickinson, the Inmarsat representative, said, ‘The accusations that somehow Inmarsat fabricated or manipulated the data are simply wrong. The data is the data. I don’t understand why anyone would think that we would want to manipulate or change any data associated with this. It is not who we are, and to accuse things differently is… I find it hurtful and.. Uh, yeah, it impacts me.’ A politician could use Mark’s words in a speech defending the objectivity of an artificial intelligence bot versus a biased journalist.