Analysis: while social media rewards sensationalism and inflammatory content, LLMs guide people away from extreme positions and towards expert-aligned stances
Financial Times John Burn-Murdoch
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Discussion
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@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]
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@elliotrades
@elliotrades
on x
This is by far the most encouraging thing I've ever read about AI
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@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.
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@garrytan
Garry Tan
on x
AI might be a powerful depolarizer in political discourse
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@jaybaxter
Jay Baxter
on x
Very good news for society. Community Notes is another depolarizing force, like AI.
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@undersecpd
@undersecpd
on x
Interesting analysis here
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@rachaelrad
Rachael Horwitz
on x
This is cool
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@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.
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@danshipper
Dan Shipper
on x
not surprising if you're paying attention https://every.to/...
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@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.
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@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.
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@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]
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@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.
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@baldingsworld
@baldingsworld
on x
There is a mathematical reason for this. Who can tell me what it is?
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@hashtaggriswold
Alex Griswold
on x
The “Grok, is this true?” guy is getting better informed on this app than the rest of us
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@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...
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@valkenburgh
Peter Van Valkenburgh
on x
The sand gods might actually save us
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@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...).
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@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).
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@nathanpmyoung
Nathan
on x
reality has a moderate bias
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@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
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@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
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@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
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@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.
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@jobhakdi
Jo Bhakdi
on x
Good news: AI models nudge the population to behave. Nothing can go wrong.
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@noahpinion
Noah Smith
on x
DIGITAL CRONKITE EFFECT!! https://www.noahpinion.blog/ ...
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@briansolis
Brian Solis
on bluesky
🚨Chart of the day... Social media algorithms favor sensationalism and polarization. Rage baiting drives engagement. On the other side, AI LLMs guide people away from extremes and toward exert-aligned perspectives. Promising if true! — www.ft.com/content/3880... [image]
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@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…
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r/aiwars
r
on reddit
AI, on the contrary, reduces extremist political views by tending to the center, unlike social media.