Researchers have struggled for decades to develop techniques to weaken the grip of conspiracy theories and cult ideology on adherents.
This is why a new paper in the journal Science by Thomas Costello of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Gordon Pennycook of Cornell University and David Rand, also of Sloan, is so exciting. It finds hope in new technology: a conversation partner powered by artificial intelligence.
In a pair of studies involving more than 2,000 participants, the researchers found a 20 percent reduction in belief in conspiracy theories after participants interacted with a powerful, flexible, personalized GPT-4 Turbo conversation partner. The researchers trained the AI to try to persuade the participants to reduce their belief in conspiracies by refuting the specific evidence the participants provided to support their favored conspiracy theory.
The reduction in belief held across a range of topics, including covid-19 and the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Even more encouraging, participants demonstrated increased intentions to ignore or unfollow social media accounts promoting the conspiracies, and significantly increased willingness to ignore or argue against other believers in the conspiracy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/26/ai-research-conspiracy-theories/
Underlying paper:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adq1814
(Hat-tip: slashdot.org)
