Technology

“We show that querying an AI chatbot to obtain historical facts can influence people’s opinions even when the information provided is accurate and nobody has prompted the tool to try to persuade you of anything,”

LMAO. These people have never heard of hegemonic bias?

This is what happens when "science" is controlled by uncritical grifters.

If you pick a stance you read on the internet without any foundational knowledge then sure, your opinion can be easily changed. If your stance is based on a mountain of knowledge, your beliefs, and a stand you've decided to take, then it won't be so easy. This is true even before the computer/internet age.

If you want to get into how this happens, and the way it happens with other technologies, I'd suggest Neil Postman's Technopoly and Amusing Ourselves To Death as a good start.

This is a wild finding. People reading a text can change their opinion on things? Can we, like, invent written pages that do this? We can even call them books or blogs. Doesn't matter who writes them or how wrong the text can be, but it's clear people can read and change their opinions

Now wait for when they will start to actively change and influence opinions!

I suspect most humans most of the time are subconsciously trying to influence the opinion of whoever they're talking to.

I wonder how much of the utility of language is precisely that you can use it to get other humans to work with you... by convincing them of like, your opinions, man.

And what about when the AI owning class introduce intended bias?

It's one the scariest outcomes possible. If people forego their reasoning and critical faculties for chat-bots. If you aren't even the one thinking your own thoughts, who is?