AI-enabled persuasion

Chatbots that change people’s political views at scale.

Facts

Lane: Interfaces and society
Wave: 6 of 12 (build order, not a date)
Needs: 12 boxes all the way back through hard links
Unlocks: 0 boxes downstream through hard links
Cluster: Science and medicine

Evidence as of October 2026

In a study with the UK AI Security Institute of about 77,000 Britons, chatbots optimised for persuasion shifted opposing voters by about 25 points, and the more persuasive models were less accurate.

01AIhub: AI chatbots can sway voters in either direction

Around it

Needs · 2

Conversational assistantsstage · Built today
Reasoning modelsstage · Built today

Unlocks · 0

Nothing further on the map.

Brakes

This box works against

Healthy information ecosystemcapability · Speculative
Human influence preservedcapability · Speculative

Loops and off-ramps

Capex pullbackoff-ramp · slowed
Taiwan chip disruptionoff-ramp · slowed
Power shortfalloff-ramp · slowed
Capability plateauoff-ramp · slowed
Training data ruled outoff-ramp · slowed
Misuse catastropheoff-ramp · slowed