Young Turks to Politicians: “Bring the Peace Process Down to the People”

Young people who were not yet born or were too young to recall the initial peace efforts are now emerging as some of the strongest voices for reconciliation. They are redefining the solution process through ideas of liberation, communal living, and shared existence. “We want the process to be brought down to the people,” they say, insisting on a grassroots approach rather than negotiations controlled by political elites [173518].

This push for a people-centered process comes amid a broader generational shift in how young activists engage with complex social and political issues. Separately, human rights organizations are facing a growing disconnect with younger generations, partly due to the rise of artificial intelligence. Algorithms often fail to capture the nuances of civil resistance and community values, flattening complex protests into simple data points and missing the emotional and cultural threads that bind communities [173434]. To reconnect, experts say these groups must learn to identify the “gaps” in AI—the areas where machine logic overlooks human context—and use those blind spots as entry points to rebuild trust through stories, solidarity, and shared purpose [173434].

Meanwhile, the broader challenge of distinguishing reality from fabrication is intensifying. Hany Farid, a leading deepfake expert at the University of California, Berkeley, warns that AI-generated images and videos have become so realistic that even he can no longer always spot a fake. “I used to be able to tell by looking,” he says. “Now, the technology has outpaced my own eyes” [172735]. Farid warns that without better detection systems and legal safeguards, society may soon lose the ability to agree on basic facts, as AI tools now create convincing videos of people saying things they never said, threatening elections and eroding public trust [172735].