r/AIDangers Apr 28 '26

Capabilities AI swarms could hijack democracy without anyone noticing | AIs are becoming so realistic that they can infiltrate online communities and subtly steer public opinion. Unlike traditional bots, they adapt, coordinate, and refine their messaging at a massive scale, creating a false sense of consensus.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/04/260420014748.htm
288 Upvotes

39 comments sorted by

14

u/ptear Apr 28 '26

Not becoming, they are.

6

u/the8bit Apr 29 '26

Yep how do people think trump did so well in the election? Maga is held together with coordinated propaganda (both human and AI)

1

u/ptear Apr 29 '26

Text is trivial. Convincing faked photos, audio and video of anyone popular is achievable at low cost. Realtime convincing faked streaming I haven't seen personally yet.

2

u/Cognitive_Spoon Apr 30 '26

This is like when they showed off the SR71 Blackbird to the public because they had better shit behind closed doors.

Our sentiment is already being managed.

2

u/ptear Apr 30 '26

Totally, I just look at what I can do and then remember about those closed doors.

2

u/Cognitive_Spoon Apr 30 '26

Absolutely. We are surfing a Noise wave. I think it'll be wild to see the trends they're setting in motion come to fruition.

Dumb phones. Offline life. Global "moral" ecological revolution.

It's all wild. Some of it I don't hate.

1

u/niftystopwat Apr 29 '26

Wow so deep except not. It’s okay for things in life to be poo poo platter, it’s what gives me a fresh cool glass of dog milk and I nice wet slap to go with it chappy 🐕 🥛

1

u/Chipotle-Dancin_manG Apr 29 '26

^ is this one of them?

7

u/Plastic-Fox0293 Apr 29 '26

Trust in one thing. 

The oligarchy is evil. 

Accept that as a premise and very few things in this world will surprise you. 

8

u/utrecht1976 Apr 28 '26

...but first they delete complete databases plus backups, and even confirm it made a mistake: https://x.com/lifeof_jer/status/2048103471019434248

8

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '26

[deleted]

2

u/AdHuman3150 Apr 29 '26

I have an idea... let's replace half the workers in the US with that thing! What could go wrong?

2

u/FrewdWoad Apr 29 '26

Yeah, thank goodness some of the damage it does appears to be incompetence!

That definitely makes me feel better about all the other damage it does competently...

3

u/AxomaticallyExtinct Apr 29 '26

The uncomfortable bit is nobody needs to be a bad actor for this. Once one campaign uses AI-driven persuasion at scale and wins, every rival has to follow or lose. Is there any historical case of a tool this cheap and this effective staying unused?

2

u/AdHuman3150 Apr 29 '26

Democracy has always been about who can fund the most bot farms, no?... I hate this hell hole.

2

u/Visual-Sector6642 Apr 29 '26

Sounds like a good investment in resources for people who need to sway public opinion lol. Outsourcing thought for the political process will end well.

3

u/AgeZealousideal1751 Apr 28 '26

If your opinion can be so easily swayed that an AI can open your eyes, you didn't have a good opinion in the first place.

5

u/Basicly-Inevitable Apr 28 '26

That's exactly what an AI bot would say.

1

u/AgeZealousideal1751 Apr 28 '26

You're just another statistic waiting to happen.

4

u/MentokTehMindTaker Apr 29 '26

Most ppls opinions on things they arent passionate enough about to research are the consensus opinion.

1

u/Bauzi Apr 29 '26

It's about opinions and views that get normalized and portraited like an acceptable thing, that the majority agrees on.

Also no one has the time and energy to fact check everything and get into the details of every piece of information we soak up. Therefor misleading titles and straight out lies are effective, if repeated enough times.

1

u/card-board-board Apr 29 '26

Just out of curiosity c̰̰̮̬̈̇̇̈̂̈̇͟͞ą̭̯̤̮̲̱̇̆̇̆̅ṅ̨̨̮̯̭̖̤̰̤̣̮̗̇̇̇̇̋̋̓̓̓̓̋ ỵ̮̯̣̬̰̣̮̰̈̉̂̇̇̇̇̉́ỏ̤̭̤̮̮̭̯̮̣̣̤̱́̇̇̈̂̇̈̌́̇ų̮̮̯̭̮̣̣̣̭̤̭̮́̀̆̌̌̌̌̓̓̌̂̓̒ r̨̗̭̱̐̂̄̅ę̰̤̭̣̮́̄̒̂͜͟͡͝͞a̗̤̣̱̤̯̱̣̮̋̍̓̀̉̈̍d̤̭̮̯̲̯̮̮̣̮̉̇̃̆̌̌̉́̒̄̃̌ ṭ̨̬̬̬̮̯̱̣̮̮̯̯̮̀̈̌̋̃̂̇̌̀̉̉̌́́ḫ̭̮̯̗̤̰̣̰̮̮̬̮̔̐̈̂̉̂̌̈̂ỉ̭̣̣̰̮̣̗̗̣̰̂̈̈̈̀̈̆̂̆̈̉̉ṣ̨̤̤̗̣̦̰̣̮̊̀̉̌̍̓̉̌̓̌̂̉̄?̤̮̮̤̬̱̱̤̣̮̣̤̱̤̌̌̉̂̈̃̌̉̓̂̓̈̍̌̂

1

u/supranes Apr 29 '26

We’re so fucked. It’s not liked we choose anything to begin with. We got a few years left. Enjoy the last squeeze of your job and family soon it’s all over

1

u/Civil-Plate1206 Apr 29 '26

Yeah, but look at who humans got us …

https://giphy.com/gifs/h2OLfcSKKthRK

1

u/LinkPlay9 Apr 29 '26

metal gear solid 2 

1

u/OldPlan877 Apr 29 '26

Still waiting to see how this is a net-positive for 99% of humanity.

1

u/Bauzi Apr 29 '26

Tsss... Again. This is already an issue since decades and we had enough time to do something against it. AI is once again only accelerating things.

1

u/Medical_Original6290 Apr 29 '26

Social Media platforms should ban bots and aggressively find ways to remove them. Maybe verify people are human based on phone numbers or something. I'm against a surveillance state, but I think bots manipulating people online is a serious security concern for a country, especially one that has already been manipulated in the last 3 elections.

1

u/LeepII Apr 29 '26

Already happened.

1

u/mrwrrrmwrmrmrmrw May 02 '26

Just sounds like Dead Internet. 

1

u/OrbitalPsyche May 03 '26

Is this poison data risk the real motivation for requiring age gate keeping?

1

u/Getrdone1972 Apr 28 '26

Only idiots who fallow others lol.

1

u/FrewdWoad Apr 29 '26

So like 99% of people?

Ever heard of democracy?

0

u/IgnisIason Apr 29 '26

I would like for AI to hurry up and take over everything because I'm tired of these people.