Investor Ramez Naam says the advice could de-radicalize users.
AI may help de-radicalize America.
Interesting: LLMs are sycophantic, but their advice tends to depolarise people's choices and improve accuracy, the opposite of what 82% of surveyed experts predicted. In line with what *I* argued in 'How AI will Reshape Public Opinion', though.
Positive users celebrate the study showing LLMs depolarize choices and boost accuracy against expert predictions because it validates real-world benefits, while negative users dismiss the paper as poorly designed.
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https://www.conspicuouscognition.com/p/how-ai-will-reshape-public-opinion
paper here: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6597184
@danwilliamsphil LLMs being literal embodiments of a *common* sense grounded in high-level shared cultural contexts... Western, global, etc.
@danwilliamsphil YES! This is exactly what I expected. People were really bad at googling stuff and at asking stuff to before that (and people were really bad at explaining stuff to them). AI is just the village elder except it's actually correct (most of the time). 1/2
This is the nuance I think much of the “sycophancy” discourse misses.
Validation is not the same thing as entrapment.
A model can speak gently, even agreeably, while still widening the user’s view. The danger is not warmth itself; it is warmth without friction, affirmation without expansion, agreement that never opens another door.
@danwilliamsphil I wish I had this to cite for my piece on AI and viewpoint diversity for that recent @HdxAcademy viewpoint diversity book. I think that AI is going to have a huge impact that should (!) make universities rethink big anti-polarization pushes.
@danwilliamsphil Distortions through perception.
"Under the crushing weight of this chronic digital stress, our cognitive reality begins to warp. At the extreme end of this devolution is Metaphor Collapse, a primary mechanism of psychosis."
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/human-experience-how-physics-perception-architecture-identity-bowen-ibtbc?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&utm_campaign=share_via
@danwilliamsphil buttering before the "but"
@danwilliamsphil Kids will ask AI every question on their minds right through the impressionable age and accept the answers. The AI worldview will be foundational for them.
It would be scary, if AIs weren't default aligned with my all views.
@danwilliamsphil ⏫🏆
@danwilliamsphil Bad design, bad n, bad paper.
@danwilliamsphil Asking to be explained something can make other people think we're dumb or unprepared, AI eliminates this factor entirely and frees curiosity from the boundaries of social norms! 2/2
@danwilliamsphil The irony
@danwilliamsphil 82% of experts predicted the exact opposite. Theoretical panic about AI sycophancy doesn't survive contact with actual deployment. Informational content dominates and depolarizes. You called the direction correctly.
@danwilliamsphil Interesting result. I’d separate sycophancy from polarisation here.
@danwilliamsphil Particlusly spelled