Why Reddit is No Longer Needed, by Ubersoy at Aporia. AI's persuasive arguments were compared to Reddit's, a mostly-liberal social platform that attracts an audience of above-average intellect, or so it is claimed. AI fared much better at changing minds than the other users.
This brings us closer to my central argument: the AI’s success wasn’t due to superior reasoning or greater reliance on facts and logic. Rather, it effectively “hacked” the mechanics of persuasion. It analyzed the rhetorical patterns found in successful cases, formed an algorithm and reproduced them.
Conservatives and libertarians might hope that we would do better, but there isn't information one way or the other that I know of. I am not confident we would not fall similarly to persuasion tailored to our vocabulary, unwritten rules, and hot-word associations.
I hope that the generation that grows up in what increasingly looks like a simulation is better equipped to see through things. That might be that humans just do, albeit imperfectly. If you look at old TV commercials you can see things that no one would fall for now.
1 comment:
I can't tell if that article is bleak or not. I haven't gone back to Reddit since I was booted from a sub for arguing that Musk wasn't a Nazi. A part of me wants to set an AI loose on that sub to mix things up. Another part of me doesn't care what happens on Reddit.
"If you look at old TV commercials you can see things that no one would fall for now."
And if you look at current TV news, you can see things that no one would fall for then.
People will always be flawed, so we have to remain vigilant.
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