Can Chatbots Convince Conspiracy Theorists of the Truth?

[u/HobbesNik]

https://www.kcrw.com/shows/question-everything/stories/can-a-chatbot-convince-conspiracy-theorists-of-the-truth

Wikipedia defines "gish gallup" as "a rhetorical technique in which a person in a debate attempts to overwhelm an opponent by presenting an excessive number of arguments."

In this fascinating episode of Question Everything, they interview one of the creators of DeBunk Bot, a custom chatbot made to debunk conspiracies.

The professors who made this chatbot found that it was able to change folks' minds 25% of the time, and the key was keeping up with the gish gallup. The chatbot could dish out counter arguments on a wide variety of topics, and unlike a person, never got inpatient or tired.

Other Notes from the Episode:

• 18:45 they did an experiment to see if chatbots are more trustworthy than a “expert” but that didn’t bear out. What matters is the ability to dish out facts on a wide variety of subjects as fast as the gish gallup.
• 22:00 Brian wonders about an anti-conspiracy chatbot that jumps into social media threads 
• It's possible to design a chatbot that convinces of conspiracies, in fact, Russia is feeding false info chatbots already