AI chatbots used inaccurate information to change political opinions: Study

AI chatbots are good at changing peoples’ political opinions, according to a new study, and are particularly persuasive when they use inaccurate information.

Artificial intelligence chatbots are very good at changing peoples’ political opinions, according to a study published Thursday, and are particularly persuasive when they use inaccurate information.

The researchers used a crowd-sourcing website to find nearly 77,000 people to participate in the study and paid them to interact with various AI chatbots, including some using AI models from OpenAI, Meta and xAI. The researchers asked for people’s views on a variety of political topics, such as taxes and immigration, and then, regardless of whether the participant was conservative or liberal, a chatbot tried to change their mind to an opposing view.

The researchers found not only that the AI chatbots often succeeded, but also that some persuasion strategies worked better than others.

“Our results demonstrate the remarkable persuasive power of conversational AI systems on political issues,” lead author Kobi Hackenburg, a doctoral student at the University of Oxford, said in a statement about the study.

The study is part of a growing body of research into how AI could affect politics and democracy, and it comes as politicians, foreign governments and others are trying to figure out how they can apply AI to sway public opinion.