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AI chatbots are becoming experts at changing people's minds

139 points · 105 comments · rbanffy

  1. b112 · · focus · HN ↗
    The title seems a flawed premise.

    Ask a Democrat or Republican to sit down and ask a chatbot, something it will answer contrary to.

    And yes, both teams are wrong about things.

    Do you firmly believe they will change their mind? Or will they claim the stats are wrong, or that the AI leans one way?

    Facts (2+2), don't need a mind change. Ideas which are grey, abstract, are not going to be changed, and all research indicates that political mindset is almost indelible.

    The movie "Don't Look Up" was a comedy built upon this truth.

    1. pixl97 · · focus · HN ↗
      I've always thought the best way to get someone to believe something is to get them to think they thought of the idea themselves.

      I wonder if a properly prompted LLM, or if a very intelligent LLM could actually do that?

      1. b112 · · focus · HN ↗
        It can! For it has already convinced you into thinking this was your idea, so you'd allow it to do the same to others!

        Seriously though, you've mentioned an ongoing human fear, machines deciding what you think.

        1. pixl97 · · focus · HN ↗
          >you've mentioned an ongoing human fear, machines deciding what you think.

          There are all kinds of machines that tell us what to think. I would consider any system that abstracts away the human to be a machine in this case. Society itself is one of these machines.

          Language is possibly one of the most important things people can have a working knowledge of, especially now that there is so much of it. When you send a prompt to an LLM you're telling it what to think. When it sends text back, its telling you what to think, but you're at a disadvantage, when you think it changes you. The LLM outside of its context is read only.

          1. b112 · · focus · HN ↗
            And amusingly a segue back to the start, "unless it's politics".
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