Behavior

A new study co-authored by Prof. David Rand found that there was a “20 percent reduction in belief in conspiracy theories after participants interacted with a powerful, flexible, personalized GPT-4 Turbo conversation partner,” writes Annie Duke for The Washington Post. “Participants demonstrated increased intentions to ignore or unfollow social media accounts promoting the conspiracies, and significantly increased willingness to ignore or argue against other believers in the conspiracy,” writes Duke. “And the results appear to be durable, holding up in evaluations 10 days and two months later.”

Postdoctoral Associate Pat Pataranutaporn speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Heidi Mitchell about his work developing Future You, an online interactive AI platform that “allows users to create a virtual older self—a chatbot that looks like an aged version of the person and is based on an AI text system known as a large language model, then personalized with information that the user puts in.” Pataranutaporn explains: “I want to encourage people to think in the long term, to be less anxious about an unknown future so they can live more authentically today.” 

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have suggested that “the impact of news that is factually inaccurate — including fake news, misinformation and disinformation — pales in comparison to the impact of news that are factually accurate but misleading,” reports Sandra Matz for Salon. “According to researchers, for example, the impact of slanted news stories encouraging vaccine skepticism during the COVID-19 pandemic was about 46-fold greater than that of content flagged as fake by fact-checkers,” writes Matz. 

Knowable Magazine reporter Katherine Ellison spotlights Future You, a new program developed by researchers at MIT that “offers young people a chance to chat with an online, AI-generated simulation of themselves at age 60.” 

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed “Future You” – an AI platform that uses generative AI to allow users to talk with an AI-generated simulation of a potential future you, reports Sammi Caramela for Vice. The research team hopes “talking to a relatable, virtual version of your future self about your current stressors, future goals, and your beliefs can improve anxiety, quell any obsessive thoughts, and help you make better decisions,” writes Caramela. 

Researchers from MIT and Oxford University has found “social media platforms’ suspensions of accounts may not be rooted in political biases, but rather certain political groups’ tendency to share misinformation,” reports Miranda Nazzaro for The Hill. “Thus, even under politically neutral anti-misinformation polices, political asymmetries in enforcement should be expected,” researchers wrote. “Political imbalance in enforcement need not imply bias on the part of social media companies implementing anti-misinformation polices.” 

A new working paper by MIT Prof. Antoinette Schoar and Brandeis Prof. Yang Sun explores how different people react to financial advice, reports Robin Wigglesworth for Financial Times. “The results indicate that most people do update their beliefs in the direction of the advice they receive, irrespective of their previous views,” writes Wigglesworth. 

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have found that “human memories can be distorted by photos and videos edited by artificial intelligence,” reports Matthew Sparkes for New Scientist. “I think the worst part here, that we need to be aware or concerned about, is when the user isn’t aware of it,” says postdoctoral fellow Samantha Chan. “We definitely have to be aware and work together with these companies, or have a way to mitigate these effects. Maybe have sort of a structure where users can still control and say ‘I want to remember this as it was’, or at least have a tag that says ‘this was a doctored photo, this was a changed photo, this was not a real one’.”

TechCrunch reporters Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey spotlight a new generative AI model developed by MIT researchers that can help counteract conspiracy theories. The researchers “had people who believed in conspiracy-related statements talk with a chatbot that gently, patiently, and endlessly offered counterevidence to their arguments,” explain Wiggers and Coldewey. “These conversations led the humans involved to stating a 20% reduction in the associated belief two months later.”

New research by Prof. David Rand and his colleagues has utilized generative AI to address conspiracy theory beliefs, reports Marie Boran for Newsweek. “The researchers had more than 2,000 Americans interact with ChatGPT about a conspiracy theory they believe in, explains Boran. “Within three rounds of conversation with the chatbot, participants’ belief in their chosen conspiracy theory was reduced by 20 percent on average.” 

A new study by researchers from MIT and elsewhere tested a generative AI chatbot’s ability to debunk conspiracy theories , reports Mack Degeurin for Popular Science. “In the end, conversations with the chatbot reduced the participant’s overall confidence in their professed conspiracy theory by an average of 20%,” writes Degeurin. 

A new study by researchers from MIT and elsewhere has found that an AI chatbot is capable of combating conspiracy theories, reports Karen Kaplan for The Los Angeles Times. The researchers found that conversations with the chatbot made people “less generally conspiratorial,” says Prof. David Rand.  “It also increased their intentions to do things like ignore or block social media accounts sharing conspiracies, or, you know, argue with people who are espousing those conspiracy theories.”

A new chatbot developed by MIT researchers aimed at persuading individuals to stop believing unfounded conspiracy theories has made “significant and long-lasting progress at changing people’s convictions,” reports Teddy Rosenbluth for The New York Times. The chatbot, dubbed DebunkBot, challenges the “widely held belief that facts and logic cannot combat conspiracy theories.” Professor David Rand explains: “It is the facts and evidence themselves that are really doing the work here.”

A new study by Prof. David Rand and his colleagues has found that chatbots, powered by generative AI, can help people abandon conspiracy theories, reports Rebecca Ruiz for Mashable. “Rand and his co-authors imagine a future in which a chatbot might be connected to social media accounts as a way to counter conspiracy theories circulating on a platform,” explains Ruiz. “Or people might find a chatbot when they search online for information about viral rumors or hoaxes thanks to keyword ads tied to certain conspiracy search terms.” 

Researchers at MIT have found that knowledge spillovers are more likely to occur when people are within 20 meters of one another, reports Tracy Brower for Forbes. Knowledge spillover “can occur intentionally—when you ask a question or gather around a white board to work through issues,” explains Brower. “Or it can be unintentional—when you’re near your team and you overhear a great idea or get passive exposure to the work going on with others.”