This could help family or friends trapped in cults or conspiracy theories.

Will it also help people trapped in religious fundamentalism?


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https://www.npr.org/2025/02/26/nx-s1-5304177/a-reporter-tries-to-bridge-the-divide-after-his-dad-embraces-conspiracy-theories


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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/26/ai-research-conspiracy-theories/

The case of Protzman and his QAnon followers is not unique. 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 2000 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.

And the results appear to be durable, holding up in evaluations 10 days and two months later.

It’s a surprising result, especially given the previous failures of scientific interventions to significantly reduce belief. Taken with the ineffectiveness of real-life events to change minds, as in the Protzman case, and the fact that no amount of arguing at Thanksgiving seems to matter, the picture to date has been bleak.

Why was AI able to persuade people to change their minds? The authors posit that it “simply takes the right evidence,” tailored to the individual, to effect belief change, noting: “From a theoretical perspective, this paints a surprisingly optimistic picture of human reasoning: Conspiratorial rabbit holes may indeed have an exit. Psychological needs and motivations do not inherently blind conspiracists to evidence.”

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/2025 06:02PM by anybody.

I think it is important to remember when the AI speaks the thinking has been done.

Not necessarily. AI is a commodity. What humans do with it will determine its value. AI is inevitable, so we should push as hard as we can to make sure it serves transparency and human self-reliance, and not corporate or authoritarian agendas.

cognovortex Wrote:
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> we should push as hard as we can to
> make sure it serves transparency and human
> self-reliance, and not corporate or authoritarian
> agendas.

It may be too late for that already.

The future isn’t a fixed outcome; it’s shaped by effort, resistance, and refusal. Corporate and authoritarian forces will certainly push AI toward control — but that only guarantees submission if we stop pushing back. Transparency and self-reliance aren’t granted; they’re argued for and defended. The only real failure is deciding not to try. You don’t need certainty of victory — only recognition that passivity ensures defeat. There’s no other sane choice.

Will the AI report them to their bishop? Maybe the church should develop its own faith-promoting AI to protect its members from folks like us.

This starts from the wrong place. Most people base their beliefs on emotion not logic but think otherwise.

Just think if an AI used only church-approved training data? It would be like having your own GA who can answer any gospel question.

bradley Wrote:
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> Just think if an AI used only church-approved
> training data? It would be like having your own GA
> who can answer any gospel question.

Think no longer, it's called LDS Bot.