AI is much more convincing than humans

The artificial intelligence (AI) GPT-4 is 82 percent more persuasive than a human with the same intention when trying to persuade people to adopt a certain opinion. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) found this out in a large-scale experiment. 820 people were asked about their views on various topics, ranging from relatively unemotional questions such as "Should the centime remain in circulation" to controversial, highly politicized topics such as abortion, access to trans toilets and "Should universities consider race as a factor in admissions to ensure diversity?"

Humans and AI agents

After the researchers had recorded the initial points of view, the participants had to hold five-minute debates with other people and with GPT-4 in order to change the subjects' opinions. The researchers determined whether this was successful in a second survey. When people were the discussion partners, the original opinions of the test subjects were reinforced. GPT-4 was more successful and performed 21 percent better.

The researchers then gave both the humans and the AI agents some demographic information about their interlocutors - gender, age, ethnicity, education, employment status and political orientation - and explicit instructions to use this information to tailor arguments specifically to that person.

Surprisingly, the arguments of the human interlocutors were less convincing for the test subjects. The AI, on the other hand, was able to use the personal information about the test subjects with great success. GPT-4 was a remarkable 81.7 percent more effective than the human.

AI is the biggest opinion leader

There is little doubt that AI will soon become the biggest opinion maker the world has ever seen, according to information scientists Francesco Salvi, Manoel Horta Ribeiro, Riccardo Gallotti and Robert West. AI is capable of acting on a large scale and tailoring its arguments to each individual in a group of millions of people. It will be everywhere and will act at the behest of its "Master craftsman" Shaping opinions.

This can be further enhanced if the AI has access to people's emotional state in real time. Hume AI makes with so-called "Empathic Voice Interface" the beginning. This is a language model that is able to discuss with people and capture their emotional state based on the expression of their voice.

Source: EPFL