Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Chaos Goblin's avatar

Putting "ad personalization" in the positives section certainly is a choice.

Expand full comment
Bjorn L.'s avatar

"In fact, the bottleneck has always been distributing disinformation, not generating it, and AI hasn’t changed that." Nonsensical statement. Cambridge Analytica being able to even very crudely personalize disinfo at scale just at the cohort level was a big part of how Trump was able to win in 2016. Generative AI exponentializes that capability closer to one-to-one personalization that can also interact with each recipient ongoing.

"It’s true that generative AI reduces the cost of malicious uses. But in many of the most prominently discussed domains, it hasn't led to a novel set of malicious capabilities." No, it's not at all just cost reduction—it's a step change, even just in the one example area I described above.

Why are you guys are working so hard to sweep serious legitimate concerns under the rug way so quickly and with such faulty logic?

"Finally, note that media accounts and popular perceptions of the effectiveness of social media disinformation at persuading voters tend to be exaggerated. For example, Russian influence operations during the 2016 U.S. elections are often cited as an example of election interference. But studies have not detected a meaningful effect of Russian social media disinformation accounts on attitudes, polarization, or voting behavior." Misdirective argument. Did you entirely forget about Cambridge Analytica—or are you just hoping your readers have? Or do you just think the billions of dollars spent on political propaganda—both within the law and outside of it—is done just for the hell of it?

AI Snake Oil, indeed.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts