From the article:

This chatbot experiment reveals that, contrary to popular belief, many conspiracy thinkers aren’t ‘too far gone’ to reconsider their convictions and change their minds.

  • The Snark Urge
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    2 days ago

    Let me guess, the good news is that conspiracism can be cured but the bad news is that LLMs are able to shape human beliefs. I’ll go read now and edit if I was pleasantly incorrect.

    Edit: They didn’t test the model’s ability to inculcate new conspiracies, obviously that’d be a fun day at the office for the ethics review board. But I bet with a malign LLM it’s very possible.

    • @[email protected]
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      192 days ago

      A piece of paper dropped on the ground can ‘shape human beliefs’. That’s literally a tool used in warfare.

      The news here is that conspiratorial thinking can be relieved at all.

      • @[email protected]
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        02 days ago

        "AI is just a tool; is a bit naïve. The power of this tool and the scope makes this tool a devastating potential. It’s a good idea to be concerned and talk about it.

        • @[email protected]
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          72 days ago

          Agreed - but acting surprised that it can change opinions (for the worse) doesn’t make sense to me, that’s obvious, since anything can. That AI can potentially do so even more effectively than other things is indeed worth talking about as a society (and is again pretty obvious)

          • The Snark Urge
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            32 days ago

            I wasn’t trying to downplay. If it can be wielded thoughtfully at scale, it could be life changing for literally millions.

            The risk is that billionaires own these models, and far too often we see their interests aligned with fascism. If they choose to place a motive in this box, they now know it will have a quantifiable effect.