AI models can meaningfully sway voters on candidates and issues, including by using misinformation, and they are also evading detection in public surveys according to three new studies.

Scientists are raising alarms about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on elections, according to a spate of new studies that warn AI can rig polls and manipulate public opinion.

In a study published in Nature on Thursday, scientists report that AI chatbots can meaningfully sway people toward a particular candidate—providing better results than video or television ads. Moreover, chatbots optimized for political persuasion “may increasingly deploy misleading or false information,” according to a separate study published on Thursday in Science.

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  • seathru@quokk.auEnglish
    1·
    2 days ago

    If all you do is read the little statements booklet they send out, and then do the mail vote based on that,

    … then you are no better informed than Bob, who is voting for the guy his pastor told him to. People should personally vet any candidate they are voting on. AI will make that more and more difficult moving forward.

    • count_dongulus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      Well my approach is:

      • Mark off every candidate who did not bother to provide a statement
      • Mark off every candidate with no listed volunteering experience in the little section for it
      • Mark off every candidate whose statement claims they will do things their desired office is not empowered to do
      • Mark off every candidate with a platform that doesn’t claim to be aiming for any kind of change or improvement in particular. (I don’t support chair warmers.)
      • Mark off every candidate whose email is a personal one listed as itsyaboymrthiccpenis@yahoo.com or something else similarly unprofessional
      • Mark off any candidate aligned with the party that supported the coup attempt in 2021

      After this quick pass, which only takes a couple of minutes, I’m typically only left with two or three offices with more than one remaining choice to compare. I then read their platform and pick the candidate with the platform goal that seems most relevant to my or my community’s interest.