Why AI Makes Political Authenticity Harder to Trust – Dr. Michael Cohen (EP 24)
episodePreviously titled “Why AI is making political authenticity harder to trust – Dr. Michael Cohen (EP 24)” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026
Transcript
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How did the iPhone become the core political infrastructure?
Hello, this is Eva, and you're listening to the In-Between Tech and Trust podcast. In this week's episode, I talked to Michael Cohen, and Michael is political scientist, founder of Congress in your pocket, which is an app that has been making US legislative information accessible to everyday for voters for almost 18 years now. He's also authored the book Modern Political Campaigns. And he's executive director of Fight Hate, which is an organization that's working to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses globally. Michael also teaches digital political strategy at Johns Hopkins and NYU, which is why he's one of the best persons to talk to when we get into the intersection of how AI is supercharging political.
Content creation and what it does to a voter's ability to know what's real. We also talk about micro-targeting and how it has fundamentally changed who campaigns actually talk to and why Michael also believes that the most powerful way to fight online hate is to take the conversation actually offline. One question that kept lingering with me after our conversation. Conversations the following. In a political landscape that is flooded with AI generated content, how do we keep authenticity? Or are we already past the point of where it matters? I invite you to find an answer for yourself to that question. And I hope some further arise and some more answer it are also shared with you. Hello Michael and welcome to the In Between Tech and Trust podcast.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I wanna start the conversation as I do with every guest because you also come from a background in technology and politics and I wanna know your take on trust in that intersection and also what the first thing is that comes to your mind.
So the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of tech and trust is really your iPhone. It's the most personal device you have. And it's on us all the time. We probably touch it more than we touch touch our spouses or any other human being during the day. And it's a two-way political gateway. You know, candidates can now reach you directly wherever you are. And you can in turn seek out information or stumble upon it in your feed again everywhere. But now that ADI has sort of supercharged that content creator. We now how much we know is real and authentic and worthy of your trust are all things that are sort of up in play right now. But again, it all goes back to that connected device that we carry in our pockets.
And now talking about carrying something in your pockets, you founded Congress in your pocket, which is perfect like an introduction to something that you've been working on heavily. And you also founded it because you wanted to make the legislative information accessible and you wanted to make it accessible in real time. What problem were you trying to solve and how did it turn out?
Well, I I think um this came out of my own just nerdom. I'm I have a PhD in political science and mass communication. My dissertation was on Congress. And so there was a lot of information that I wish I had for that dissertation that wasn't readily accessible. I would have loved to have talked to staffers. I would have loved to have talked to people around the process that I was studying. And it was very hard to find that information. I mean, you would have to go to spiral bound notebooks that were basically out of date when after right after You printed them. Um, you'd have to go and pay premium uh services, thousands of dollars a year that you could get on the internet, but it was super clunky and it was even at that price, it was out of date.
And so I felt that voters should really have that access to information directly. And over time, we built out the legislative section, which started with members sponsored and co-sponsored bills. And a few years ago, we added committees and subcommittee membership and staff. But last January, we added something that we Thought was really amazing. Um, we added AI bill summaries, which provides real context for people on what Capitol Hill is working on and also distills down for people because they're not going to read 400 to 500 pay bills, um, which are available online.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did the iPhone become the core political infrastructure?
0:14–4:55
2
What did 18 years of answering every user email reveal about civic trust?
4:55–8:57
3
Why does Michael argue that hyper‑targeting is better for democracy than broadcast ads?
8:57–12:40
4
What is the “real, authentic, factual” test and why must it be taught before campaign work begins?
12:40–18:01
5
How does the Fight Hate initiative use digital tools to combat anti‑Semitism offline?
18:01–22:24
6
How far have AI‑generated videos pushed the authenticity meter for digital natives?
22:24–27:16
7
Why does Michael teach ethics and AI responsibility before students use the tools?
27:16–30:32
8
What does the future of political trust look like in an AI‑driven landscape?
30:32–34:22
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The In-Between Tech and Trust Podcast
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An AI-First Platform Built on Trust - Philipp Witzmann, nebenan.de (EP 37)
An AI Agent on Creativity and Trust - Xiaomi, The AI Art Magazine (EP 36)
Leading When AI Outruns Expertise - Wolf Ingomar Faecks (EP 35)
Co-Opting Agentic Matter and Transcending Exotic Computing: Where Frontier Technologies Evolve - Dr. Zina Jarrahi Cinker (EP 34)
AI Governance Structures To Ensure Trust - Solo Episode (EP 33)