4 ms·

I have a feeling we will see a future like this, in some places, for some topics. Writing about GPT-3 I mentioned: > How do you get to the point, then, where y

I have a feeling we will see a future like this, in some places, for some topics. Writing about GPT-3 I mentioned: > How do you get to the point, then, where you're only filtering by human comments? What happens when its 99,000 comments, and 99% of them bots?? Will you know? Will you be influenced? > Will the average person be influenced? If advertising and the idea of saying something over and over works, and words are free, and you can GPT-3 your hand-rolled (or state authorized) propaganda every day in every comment thread in every forum to look like an average person is advocating for X, will other average people be more convinced of X? https://simonsarris.com/commentdammerung https://simonsarris.com/commentdammerung

pphysch 5y ago
Most people are already getting a fully synthetic worldview provided to them by powerful media companies. GPT-3/etc further saturates that space but doesn't add anything radically new to the picture.
- rg111 5y ago
  It does add scale to the picture. And yes, it is radically impactful.
  - pphysch 5y ago
    Scaling a wetware troll farm of 10 trolls to a bot farm of 1000 bots isn't radically impactful unless you are competing with other troll/bot farms. The people will get highly synthetic information either way. The powerful will continue to use the most effective influence mediums available to them. As it was.
    - rg111 5y ago
      In my experience, it doesn't work like that. Some common talking points by either side of the American political spectrum gets regurgitated and propagated a lot, and by true believers. Also by troll farms. But those are not what I am worried about. I am worried about some issues and opinions getting dragged from the fringes to the mainstream by sheer scale. There are some cases which are not widely talked about- let's say it has a hundred deluded supporters. Now, a corporation might hire a high-tech troll farm that produces GPT-like-tech enabled troll accounts running wild in platforms and commenting wild stuff. There can be an effect in the minds of the undecided, or even people on the other side- "if so many people are saying this..." Thus is begins. Decisions can be swayed and opinions can be manufactured this way.

pphysch 5y ago

Most people are already getting a fully synthetic worldview provided to them by powerful media companies. GPT-3/etc further saturates that space but doesn't add anything radically new to the picture.

rg111 5y ago
It does add scale to the picture. And yes, it is radically impactful.
- pphysch 5y ago
  Scaling a wetware troll farm of 10 trolls to a bot farm of 1000 bots isn't radically impactful unless you are competing with other troll/bot farms. The people will get highly synthetic information either way. The powerful will continue to use the most effective influence mediums available to them. As it was.
  - rg111 5y ago
    In my experience, it doesn't work like that. Some common talking points by either side of the American political spectrum gets regurgitated and propagated a lot, and by true believers. Also by troll farms. But those are not what I am worried about. I am worried about some issues and opinions getting dragged from the fringes to the mainstream by sheer scale. There are some cases which are not widely talked about- let's say it has a hundred deluded supporters. Now, a corporation might hire a high-tech troll farm that produces GPT-like-tech enabled troll accounts running wild in platforms and commenting wild stuff. There can be an effect in the minds of the undecided, or even people on the other side- "if so many people are saying this..." Thus is begins. Decisions can be swayed and opinions can be manufactured this way.