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The thing about AI enhanced propaganda is that it will learn exactly what to say to push your buttons and drive you further down a road away from reality towar

The thing about AI enhanced propaganda is that it will learn exactly what to say to push your buttons and drive you further down a road away from reality towards something people want you to believe. No one is impervious to this and I’ve seen many articles on both left and right that are completely false. We need to be very careful to do proper research on the likely correctness and fact checking of articles, images and even videos before they are shared, but you can go too far the other way if you try to automate this. Social media should probably warn you with algorithms if you share something likely to be false.

Bjartr 9y ago
You know what I've never seen? An article that teaches how to do effective research like you suggest. Maybe that's what people who want a more reasoned and informed discussion should be pushing, the very resources that would help others become reasoned and informed.
- baq 9y ago
  isn't this what you're supposed to be taught in high school or even elementary when writing essays?
  - nocobot 9y ago
    In high school I was told to make up statistics as needed when writing essays. Anecdotal evidence of course but I suspect that many schools do a bad job at this. But I suspect the bigger problem is that the amount of research needed to hold an informed opinion is growing exponentially in many fields.
    - perfmode 9y ago
      > But I suspect the bigger problem is that the amount of research needed to hold an informed opinion is growing exponentially in many fields. Which is why trust becomes more important than ever.
  - Bjartr 9y ago
    Sure, but that doesn't mean plenty of adults couldn't use a well designed refresher. After all, studies have shown[1] that many adults struggle with arithmetic of a level also taught in school. [1] This article summarizes some of the findings of one such study and links to further resources https://qz.com/638845/americans-are-spectacularly-bad-at-answering-even-the-most-basic-math-questions/ https://qz.com/638845/americans-are-spectacularly-bad-at-ans...
throwaway5752 9y ago
What do you see on the left?
- baq 9y ago
  Articles appealing to emotions instead of reason.
  - blackbagboys 9y ago
    All effective political organizing appeals at some level to emotions. Appeals to pure reason is the domain of dusty technocrats who are content to fiddle with the knobs on a fundamentally unjust system.
- takeda 9y ago
  Similar things, few minutes ago I saw post on reddit essentially saying that while students were protesting gun laws Trump was golfing and Pence posted on Twitter about a movie. This probably is true, but that post is essentially to push people's buttons.
  - blackbagboys 9y ago
    Appealing to people’s sense of outrage is perfectly justifiable if the outragenousness is rooted in facts.
- justAnotherNET 9y ago
  Just the other day I heard NPR say “Asssssault Rifle with highhhh capacity magazine” (emphasis theirs) when discussing an AR-15, which is not an assault rifle, and its standard 30-round magazine. I can get most right wingers to admit they know Fox is biased towards republicans. What amazes me is how many left wingers will vehemently deny groups like NPR, NYT, Bezos Post etc are biased in their coverage to an equal or greater magnitude. They won’t blink when the paper who sold us the Iraq war WMD story runs an inflammatory headline with “sources familiar with a persons thinking” as their support.
OrganicMSG 9y ago
> The thing about AI enhanced propaganda is that it will learn exactly what to say to push your buttons and drive you further down a road away from reality towards something people want you to believe. Nonsense, is just the AI enhanced propaganda that is making you think that.
LifeLiverTransp 9y ago
News and the like, really needs some sort of habbit to handle them by now. Like i wont read anything that has not been around longer then 2 weeks and has been reposted by several vendors. It also would help, if there was a App-Agent, checking the facts in a text.
- atomi 9y ago
  It shouldn't really matter so much if we all had a a baseline truth to rely on. For example: > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
waterhouse 9y ago
> [AI enhanced propaganda] will learn exactly what to say to push your buttons ... No one is impervious to this If this is true, then I wonder if one could repurpose the machinery towards making people resistant to such manipulation. Push people's buttons to make them think there's something wrong with bleu cheese, then follow up (perhaps at the end of the article, perhaps later) with a description of how their buttons were pushed and a listing of everything that was faked. The analogy would be vaccination. If you get hoaxed once and learn that it was a hoax, that may not have much effect (see Gell-Mann amnesia). If it happens six times in a row, I suspect that will make you significantly less liable to believe things you read without question.

Bjartr 9y ago

You know what I've never seen? An article that teaches how to do effective research like you suggest. Maybe that's what people who want a more reasoned and informed discussion should be pushing, the very resources that would help others become reasoned and informed.

baq 9y ago
isn't this what you're supposed to be taught in high school or even elementary when writing essays?
- nocobot 9y ago
  In high school I was told to make up statistics as needed when writing essays. Anecdotal evidence of course but I suspect that many schools do a bad job at this. But I suspect the bigger problem is that the amount of research needed to hold an informed opinion is growing exponentially in many fields.
  - perfmode 9y ago
    > But I suspect the bigger problem is that the amount of research needed to hold an informed opinion is growing exponentially in many fields. Which is why trust becomes more important than ever.
- Bjartr 9y ago
  Sure, but that doesn't mean plenty of adults couldn't use a well designed refresher. After all, studies have shown[1] that many adults struggle with arithmetic of a level also taught in school. [1] This article summarizes some of the findings of one such study and links to further resources https://qz.com/638845/americans-are-spectacularly-bad-at-answering-even-the-most-basic-math-questions/ https://qz.com/638845/americans-are-spectacularly-bad-at-ans...

throwaway5752 9y ago

What do you see on the left?

baq 9y ago
Articles appealing to emotions instead of reason.
- blackbagboys 9y ago
  All effective political organizing appeals at some level to emotions. Appeals to pure reason is the domain of dusty technocrats who are content to fiddle with the knobs on a fundamentally unjust system.
takeda 9y ago
Similar things, few minutes ago I saw post on reddit essentially saying that while students were protesting gun laws Trump was golfing and Pence posted on Twitter about a movie. This probably is true, but that post is essentially to push people's buttons.
- blackbagboys 9y ago
  Appealing to people’s sense of outrage is perfectly justifiable if the outragenousness is rooted in facts.
justAnotherNET 9y ago
Just the other day I heard NPR say “Asssssault Rifle with highhhh capacity magazine” (emphasis theirs) when discussing an AR-15, which is not an assault rifle, and its standard 30-round magazine. I can get most right wingers to admit they know Fox is biased towards republicans. What amazes me is how many left wingers will vehemently deny groups like NPR, NYT, Bezos Post etc are biased in their coverage to an equal or greater magnitude. They won’t blink when the paper who sold us the Iraq war WMD story runs an inflammatory headline with “sources familiar with a persons thinking” as their support.

OrganicMSG 9y ago

> The thing about AI enhanced propaganda is that it will learn exactly what to say to push your buttons and drive you further down a road away from reality towards something people want you to believe. Nonsense, is just the AI enhanced propaganda that is making you think that.

LifeLiverTransp 9y ago

News and the like, really needs some sort of habbit to handle them by now. Like i wont read anything that has not been around longer then 2 weeks and has been reposted by several vendors. It also would help, if there was a App-Agent, checking the facts in a text.

atomi 9y ago
It shouldn't really matter so much if we all had a a baseline truth to rely on. For example: > We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

waterhouse 9y ago

> [AI enhanced propaganda] will learn exactly what to say to push your buttons ... No one is impervious to this If this is true, then I wonder if one could repurpose the machinery towards making people resistant to such manipulation. Push people's buttons to make them think there's something wrong with bleu cheese, then follow up (perhaps at the end of the article, perhaps later) with a description of how their buttons were pushed and a listing of everything that was faked. The analogy would be vaccination. If you get hoaxed once and learn that it was a hoax, that may not have much effect (see Gell-Mann amnesia). If it happens six times in a row, I suspect that will make you significantly less liable to believe things you read without question.