THE
NOBEL
PRIZE
2023 Nobel Prize Summit
TRUTH, TRUST,
AND HOPE
Franklin Carrero-Martínez, Negin Sobhani, Emi Kameyama,
and Paula Whitacre, Rapporteurs
Committee on 2023 Nobel Prize Summit: Truth, Trust, and Hope
Global Sustainability and Development
Policy and Global Affairs
NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
This activity was supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation under award number GR-2022-66425, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation under award number INV-059048, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Luminate, the National Science Foundation under award number 2325015, the Rita Allen Foundation, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation under award number P-6014569-2023.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-71042-8
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-71042-1
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/27247
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. 2023 Nobel Prize Summit: Truth, Trust, and Hope: Proceedings of a Summit. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27247.
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STEERING COMMITTEE ON 2023 Nobel Prize Summit: Truth, Trust, and Hope
Vidar Helgesen (Co-chair), Executive Director, Nobel Foundation
Marcia McNutt (Co-chair) (NAS/NAE), President, National Academy of Sciences
Peter Doherty* (NAS/NAM), Laureate Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne at the Doherty Institute
Kathleen Hall Jamieson (NAS), Professor of Communications and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania
Saul Perlmutter* (NAS), Professor, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, and Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Michael Rich, President Emeritus, The RAND Corporation
Åsa Wikforss, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Stockholm University
National Academies Staff
Franklin Carrero-Martínez, Senior Director, Global Sustainability and Development
Negin Sobhani, Director, Global Sustainability and Development
Ann Merchant, Deputy Executive Director, Office of the Chief Communications Officer
Emi Kameyama, Program Officer, Global Sustainability and Development
Danielle Etheridge, Administrative Assistant, Global Sustainability and Development
Consultant
Paula Tarnapol Whitacre, Principal, Full Circle Communications, LLC
* Nobel Prize laureate
Nobel Prize Staff
Anna Sjöström Douagi, VP Strategic Initiatives
Lena Abrahamsson Lund, Project Manager
Ebba Bourghardt, Relations Manager
Laetitia de Chabot, Senior Partner Relations Manager
Simon Doyle, Chief Digital Officer
Alice Dunaway, Digital Editor
Owen Gaffney, Chief Impact Officer
Maria von Konow, Brand Identity Manager
Manisha Lalloo, Editorial Manager
Daniela Nordgren, Project Manager
Sally O’Brien, Web and Digital
Rebecka Oxelström, Head of Press
Jakob Rubensson, Technical Producer
Laura Sprechmann, CEO Nobel Prize Outreach
CONTENTS
Organization of the Summit and This Proceedings
Fissures and Fractures: Tracing the Fault Lines of Misinformation
MAKING SENSE OF MISINFORMATION
Communicating Science in a Post-Truth World
Dynamic Dialogues on Truth, Trust, and Hope
“I’m Not Afraid. You’re Afraid”
A Framework for the Future: Two New Approaches
A Conversation with Nobel Prize Laureates: Truth, Trust, and Hope
EXTENDING THE CONVERSATION: THE FORUM OF EXPERTS
SOLUTION SESSIONS: TURNING DISCUSSIONS INTO ACTIONS
Regulate? Legislate? Activate!
Untold Stories: Youth Initiatives to Promote Healthy Information Ecosystems in the Global South
Trust in Science: The Importance of Education in Developing an Evidence-Based Worldview
Mis- and Disinformation in Latin America: The Public, the Media, the Science
Empowering Science Diplomacy: Emerging Leadership Across the Americas
Scientific Media Literacy in K–12 Education
Appendix A: The Global Conversation Agenda
Appendix B: Forum of Experts Agenda
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
In November 2021, the Nobel Foundation formally approached the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) President Marcia McNutt with a proposal to convene another Nobel Prize Summit. Following the success of the first summit held virtually to an audience of more than fifteen thousand unique viewers, the second summit would focus on pressing global issues. To begin the process of developing a plan for this second Nobel Prize Summit in 2023, a steering committee, led by the NAS president and Nobel Foundation Executive Director Vidar Helgesen, was established in 2022. The committee included NAS, National Academy of Medicine members, a Nobel Prize laureate, and other experts. Anna Sjöström Douagi and I were appointed executive directors and worked with a dedicated team of staff from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Nobel Foundation who met virtually on a weekly basis as well as in person in May 2022 and March 2023 to plan the summit.
To help set the stage for the summit, several pre-summit events were hosted in 2022 and 2023, including a workshop connected to the Paris Peace Forum, titled Online Peace and Safety: Forging a Common Democratic Vision of Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace, together with Alliance4Europe, Project Liberty, the Stanford Content Policy and Society Lab (November 10, 2022 in Paris, France); a plenary session at the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Annual Meeting, titled Trusting Scientific Institutions and Scientists (March 4, 2023 in Washington, DC); and a cultural event, Kulturnatten, at the Nobel Prize Museum relating to the summit themes (April 22, 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden), and a session on the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE; September 2022 in Oxford, United Kingdom; see Chapter 4). The IPIE was proposed during the 2021 Nobel Prize Summit.
On May 24–26, 2023, the second Nobel Prize Summit, entitled “Truth, Trust, and Hope,” was convened as a hybrid event to examine misinformation and disinformation in the context of the broader information ecosystem looking at the global impact of information technologies in nature and society. The summit brought together Nobel Prize laureates, leading scientists, business leaders, writers, artists, and young innovators to share insights, challenges, and solutions relating to trust and information. With a positive narrative and the accelerating prevalence of artificial intelligence, big data, and other emerging information technologies, the summit explored the challenges and opportunities of democratization of knowledge and information and the erosion of trust. Held in Washington, DC and virtually, the 3-day summit attracted more than 700 in-person attendees and more
than 10,000 online participants from more than 70 countries. Eleven Nobel Prize laureates were actively engaged in the summit, and 32 partner organizations were involved, including breakout sessions and solution sessions.
Several important activities were launched during the summit, including two global calls, Hope in Action: Open-Source Innovations for Information Integrity with the Digital Public Goods Alliance and the United Nations Development Programme and Sustainable Communities! Collaborative Action Research Program for the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit for a group of high school students with the Smithsonian Science Education Center, in addition to the IPIE and a new educational toolkit, “Scientific thinking for all.” Additional information can be found in a National Academies feature story, titled “Nobel Prize Summit Fuels Initiatives to Combat Misinformation and Disinformation and Build Trust in Science.”1 There have been many new developments, challenges, and opportunities since we held the Summit in May 2023. Amongst them is the role of large language models in spreading inaccurate information, AI hallucinations, and impacts in other societal endeavors. These and many more issues continue to garner attention, and discussions will continue for the foreseeable future. While top of mind at release time, these issues were not discussed in depth at the time of the Summit. Some of these topics were addressed in a post-Summit side event held during the 78th United Nations General Assembly in September 2023. This event, titled Truth, Trust, and Hope in Practice: Defining Next Steps towards a Digital Future was co-hosted with Alliance4Europe.
The Nobel Prize Summit would not have been possible without the generous support of sponsors, including our lead partner, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Luminate, the National Science Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Other partner organizations included Alliance4Europe; the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Deliberative Democracy Lab at the Stanford Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; the Digital Public Goods Alliance; the Embassy of Sweden to the United States; the International Panel on the Information Environment; Media Literacy Now; PeaceTech Lab; SkillsVR; S&R Evermay; the Smithsonian Science Education Center; the Stockholm Resilience Centre/Beijer Institute; the
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1 See: https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/06/nobel-prize-summit-fuels-initiatives-to-combat-misinformation-and-disinformation-and-build-trust-in-science.
Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research; the Mercury Project; the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue; the United Nations Development Programme; and Wikimedia DC.
On behalf of the National Academies, we want to express our sincere appreciation to members of the executive team, including Anna Sjöström Douagi and Lena Abrahamsson, from the Nobel Foundation, and Negin Sobhani, from the National Academies, who joined me in delivering this important event. The committee also recognizes the contribution of colleagues in the communications teams from the Nobel Foundation (Ebba Bourghardt, Simon Doyle, Manisha Lalloo, Rebecka Oxelström, and Maria von Konow) and the National Academies (Ann Merchant, Cortney Sloan, Jeffrey Fishman, Molly Galvin, William Kearney, and David May) for their support and assistance with summit activities.
This Proceedings of a Summit was prepared by the rapporteurs as a factual summary of what was presented and discussed at the summit. The steering committee’s role was limited to planning and convening the summit. The statements made are those of the rapporteurs and do not necessarily represent positions of the summit participants as a whole, the steering committee, or the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. We wish to extend sincere thanks to all the members of the planning committee for their contributions in scoping, developing, and carrying out this project. All photography credits are courtesy of Karen Sayre.
This Proceedings of a Summit was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments to assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and ensure the document meets institutional standards for quality and objectivity. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the process.
We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this proceedings: Aleksandra Berditchevskaia, Nesta; Ramalingam Chellappa, Johns Hopkins University; Elizabeth Loftus, University of California, Irvine; Miguel Luengo-Oroz, Spotlab.ai; and Francisca Oladipo, Thomas Adewumi University. Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and
suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the proceedings, nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this proceedings was overseen by Bernard Amadei, University of Colorado, Boulder. Appointed by the National Academies, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this proceedings rests entirely with the rapporteurs and the institution.
Franklin Carrero-Martínez, Senior Director
Global Sustainability and Development
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