Some excerpts from an article in Salon.com by Fillipo Menczer, Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at Indiana University, about the threat of AI bots to our democracy:
"Today, people and organizations with malicious intent have access to more powerful AI language models – including open-source ones – while social media platforms have relaxed or eliminated moderation efforts. They even provide financial incentives for engaging content, irrespective of whether it’s real or AI-generated. This is a perfect storm for foreign and domestic influence operations targeting democratic elections. For example, an AI-controlled bot swarm could create the false impression of widespread, bipartisan opposition to a political candidate.
The current U.S. administration has dismantled federal programs that combat such hostile campaigns and defunded research efforts to study them. Researchers no longer have access to the platform data that would make it possible to detect and monitor these kinds of online manipulation. [snip]
The Trump administration has aimed to reduce AI and social media regulation and is instead favoring rapid deployment of AI models over safety.
The threat of malicious AI swarms is no longer theoretical: Our evidence suggests these tactics are already being deployed." (our emphasis)
Billionaires have an obvious stake in electing MAGAt politicians to serve their interests. For them, it's a modest investment to populate social media with bots spreading false information, and they'll do little or nothing to stop it on the platforms and media they control.
We noted yesterday that there is some action underway to put curbs on AI, but with the Malignant Fascist and his lackeys in Congress looking to benefit from an AI boost from his billionaire tech allies, the chances of success soon are very slim.
No comments:
Post a Comment