When machines whisper: Can AI manipulate our opinions?

?? This is a?signal?from the future.?You can use the?signal?to reflect on yourself, society or your business.?Kind regards, Jarno Duursma.

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When machines whisper: Can AI manipulate our opinions?

I deliver a decent number of lectures on artificial intelligence every month. Following each lecture, I always allocate time for questions. Unsurprisingly, many of the questions are the same, touching on job displacement, AI-superintelligence and misinformation.

Can 'Her' be here?

One frequently returning question references the movie "Her," in which a young man has conversations with a sophisticated artificial intelligence system and eventually develops romantic feelings for it.

I won't spoil the conclusion ;-).

For years, my response remained unchanged: such a scenario was a figment of imagination. The notion that an artificial intelligence system could engage in meaningful in-depth conversation, influence someone, manipulate them, and seamlessly circle back to topics from previous discussions and ideas seemed far-off.

When Fiction Meets Reality

Yet, here's the crux: recent advancements in AI language models have significantly shifted the probability of such a scenario. Since AI's conversational abilities have significantly improved in the past year.

I find it more and more plausible that in the future, commercial entities will cultivate their own conversational AI-agents to interact with potential customers online, primarily aiming to accomplish their commercial objectives. Subscriptions, services and products.

A scalable online AI-powered "sales representative" capable of conducting sales driven conversations (24 hours a day) on behalf of any company. Trained with documents covering sales, influencing, marketing, debating, and persuasion.

Hypothetically, if numerous commercial entities were to adopt this approach, would it start a new era of advertising and marketing? Who knows? Will commercial, pro-active chatbots be the next frontier in digital marketing?

It is no longer utter nonsense to think of this scenario. I don't foresee it occurring in the near future, but then again, this newsletter is named "Signals from the Future" for a reason.. ;-)

Makes me wonder: how close are we to AI-driven relationships?

Sensitive Subjects

Let's take a step further: what if these conversational bots were employed online to control discussions on sensitive issues such as climate change, abortion, and immigration? Aimed to sway public opinion or to grow political tension in a specific society? (Could we see Russia do this in America?).

Will these conversational bots be deployed by political parties to influence public opinion on sensitive topics? It's as though thousands of individuals are employed, tirelessly messaging potential voters to persuade them towards certain opinions.

Fake intimacy

These bots could even feign friendship and intimacy to manipulate us, all with the intent of confice us of specific viewpoints or sell us subscriptions, products and services. This may sound imaginative, but this latter scenario is deemed plausible by thinkers like Yuval Noah Harari.

And if you're not aware of this; 'Fake intimacy' created by chatbots is a real thing in 2023.

Like GenAI expert Henry Adjer recently said: "AI intimacy and romance is no longer science fiction- it's happening right now and companies clearly see money to be made in providing 'AI partners'".

AI-software as our conversational partner, our friend, our soulmate. Objective: to make money or spread political statements. Once we become attached to our digital soulmate, we are willing to pay for subscriptions or purchase products or services.

Algorithmic affection

Artificial intelligence systems that talk to us, manipulate our emotions, flirt with us, and make us feel valued and acknowledged. And exploit our inherent desire for connection, acceptance, and love.

Conclusion? To me, a narrative from a 2013 science fiction film suddenly feels a bit more realistic.

What do you think?