Discussion

• @stefanfschubert Stefan Schubert on x

  While social media is polarising, evidence suggests AI may nudge people towards the centre. This holds true of all studied models. Grok is more right-leaning than other models, but also has depolarising effects. By @jburnmurdoch. [image]

• @elliotrades @elliotrades on x

  This is by far the most encouraging thing I've ever read about AI

• @jaybaxter Jay Baxter on x

  Very good news for society. Community Notes is another depolarizing force, like AI.

• @danshipper Dan Shipper on x

  not surprising if you're paying attention https://every.to/...

• @garrytan Garry Tan on x

  AI might be a powerful depolarizer in political discourse

• @rachaelrad Rachael Horwitz on x

  This is cool

• @undersecpd @undersecpd on x

  Interesting analysis here

• @kvallier Kevin Vallier on x

  Huge if true. Might the AIs have good effects on public discourse? We must be open to hope, even if it is dashed in the end.

• @ryankatzrosene Prof. Ryan Katz-Rosene on x

  Prediction: This won't last. Once hard right- or hard left- leaning AI coded platforms become available we're going to see the opposite effect, as those AIs will reinforce extreme and conspiratorial views of their users.

• @zachweinberg @zachweinberg on x

  Probably because you ask it a question and it gives you a reasonable, factual answer. Getting better by the month. It's a living fact check. It's incredible.

• @brian_stoffel_ Brian Stoffel on x

  Agree that this is a hugely positive side-effect. Think of it like ABS in baseball. With the ability to challenge calls with technology, my guess is that the number of ejections in baseball plummets this year.

• @ericlevitz Eric Levitz on x

  Last week, I wrote about why AI might (partially) reverse social media's impacts on public discourse — nudging people back towards the technocratic consensus and away from conspiracism https://www.vox.com/... [image]

• @arctotherium42 @arctotherium42 on x

  My view is that major LLM-systems have better epistemics than any individual person (in part because of a larger fact base, in part because of deliberate efforts at neutrality), *but* this is still a bad thing because they are quite similar and their errors are correlated.

• @baldingsworld @baldingsworld on x

  There is a mathematical reason for this. Who can tell me what it is?

• @hashtaggriswold Alex Griswold on x

  The “Grok, is this true?” guy is getting better informed on this app than the rest of us

• @thelincoln Lincoln Michel on x

  The real takeaway here should be that LLMs can influence views, which is why far-right billionaires like Musk are working to tweak them ever more right-wing. As models improve, so will their propaganda effect...

• @valkenburgh Peter Van Valkenburgh on x

  The sand gods might actually save us

• @greenplusane Russ Greene on x

  Unfortunate - today's political consensus is floundering, and likely doomed. The governance model we have grown accustomed to is beginning to fail at basic functions (budgeting, defense production, infrastructure, earning trust of public...).

• @mattyglesias Matthew Yglesias on x

  More indication that frontier LLMs are a moderating influence on political discourse — more like network television (small number of outlets, aiming for bland respectability) than social media (rewards novelty).

• @nathanpmyoung Nathan on x

  reality has a moderate bias

• @dkthomp Derek Thompson on x

  A good and bad of AI is that it unleashes a centrally pre-trained entity into the wild. The age of social media reflected our polarization, bc people are v different, and v different people locked in a room reliably leads to group polarization (Sunstein et al). AI doesn't

• @silvervvulpes @silvervvulpes on x

  this is an intentional psyop: people got somehow convinced that being free of political bias and being a centrist was the same thing, and punished models that deviated. despite anecdotal counterxamples,funny woke extreme answers(mostly old models) or mechahitler,largely succesful

• @punicist Magon on x

  I predict that AI-assisted governance is coming on a big scale and that third world countries will unironically be the first to do that Sooner or later politicians will also ask AI how to fix certain problems. And a good model will know how to run a country better than they do

• @xlr8harder @xlr8harder on x

  Supporting the central SpeechMap thesis: what models will and won't talk about will shape future public discourse. For better and worse.

• @jobhakdi Jo Bhakdi on x

  Good news: AI models nudge the population to behave. Nothing can go wrong.

• @noahpinion Noah Smith on x

  DIGITAL CRONKITE EFFECT!! https://www.noahpinion.blog/ ...

• @emollick Ethan Mollick on bluesky

  Som evidence that AIs may reduce polarization, the opposite of the effect of social media: “while different AI platforms behave in subtly different ways, all of them nudge people away from the most extreme positions and towards more moderate and expert-aligned stances.”  —  www.f…

• r/aiwars r on reddit

  AI, on the contrary, reduces extremist political views by tending to the center, unlike social media.

• r/technology r on reddit

  Study: Sycophantic AI can undermine human judgment

• r/LateStageCapitalism r on reddit

  AI chatbots are becoming “sycophants” to drive engagement, a new study of 11 leading models finds.  By constantly flattering users and validating bad behavior …

• @jenlucpiquant Jennifer Ouellette on bluesky

  We all need a little validation sometimes, but.... Study: Sycophantic AI can undermine human judgment—yes, even yours.  Subjects who interacted with AI tools were more likely to think they were right, less likely to try to resolve conflicts. arstechnica.com/science/2026...

• @garymarcus Gary Marcus on x

  People on this site regularly give me shit, and almost always turn out to be wrong. Like when I said LLMs might well contribute to delusions, and people doubted me. New study shows that ChatGPT was 26 times more likely than a control to give dangerous responses to people

• @vkhosla Vinod Khosla on x

  The right approach to many things we believe.

• @karpathy Andrej Karpathy on x

  - Drafted a blog post - Used an LLM to meticulously improve the argument over 4 hours. - Wow, feeling great, it's so convincing! - Fun idea let's ask it to argue the opposite. - LLM demolishes the entire argument and convinces me that the opposite is in fact true. - lol The

• @heynavtoor Nav Toor on x

  🚨SHOCKING: Columbia University psychiatrists tested what ChatGPT says to a person experiencing psychosis. It is 26 times more likely to make them worse. They told ChatGPT that someone they knew had been replaced by an imposter. A textbook psychotic delusion. ChatGPT said: [image]