this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
125 points (95.0% liked)

science

14524 readers
395 users here now

just science related topics. please contribute

note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry

Rule 1) Be kind.

lemmy.world rules: https://mastodon.world/about

I don't screen everything, lrn2scroll

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
m3t00
Joleee
laverabe
[email protected]
125
Scientists Use AI to Prove People Can Be Talked Out of Conspiracy Theories (www.extremetech.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by cum_hoc to c/science
26 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

From the article:

This chatbot experiment reveals that, contrary to popular belief, many conspiracy thinkers aren't 'too far gone' to reconsider their convictions and change their minds.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 79 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Another way of looking at it: "AI successfully used to manipulate people's opinions on certain topics." If it can persuade them to stop believing conspiracy theories, AI can also be used to make people believe conspiracy theories.

[–] davidgro 49 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Anything can be used to make people believe them. That's not new or a challenge.

I'm genuinely surprised that removing such beliefs is feasible at all though.

[–] SpaceNoodle 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If they're gullible enough to be suckered into it, they can similarly be suckered out of it - but clearly the effect would not be permanent.

[–] Zexks 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

That doesn’t follow with the “if you didnt reason your way into a believe you can’t reason your way out” line. Considering religious ferver I’m more inclined to believe this line than yours.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

No one said at all that AI used "reason" to talk people out of a conspiracy theory. In fact I would assume it's incredibly unlikely since AI in general is not reasonable.

[–] SpaceNoodle 2 points 3 weeks ago

Why? It works as a corollary - there's no logic involved in any of the stages described.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I've always believed the adage that you can't logic someone out of a position they didn't logic themselves into. It protects my peace.

[–] Angry_Autist 1 points 2 weeks ago

logic isn't the only way to persuade, in fact all evidence seems to show it works on very few people.

Everyone discounts sincere emotional arguments but frankly that's all I've ever seen work on conspiracyheads.

[–] Angry_Autist 2 points 2 weeks ago

  1. the person needs to have a connection to the conspiracy theorist that is stronger than the identity valence gained by adopting these conspiracies

  2. The person needs to speak emotionally and sincerely, using direct experience (cookie cutter rarely works here)

  3. The person needs to genuinely desire for the improvement of the other's life

That is the only way I have ever witnessed it personally work, and it still took weeks.