Reviewing the evidence on psychological manipulation by Bots and AI

TL;DR: In terms of the potential risks and harms that can come from powerful AI models, hyper-persuasion of individuals is unlikely to be a serious threat at this point in time. I wouldn’t consider this threat path to be very easy for a misaligned AI or maliciously wielded AI to navigate reliably. I would expect that, for people hoping to reduce risks associated with AI models, there are other more impactful and tractable defenses they could work on. I would advocate for more substantive research into the effects of long-term influence from AI companions and dependency, as well as more research into what interventions may work in both one-off and chronic contexts. ----- In this post we’ll explore how bots can actually influence human psychology and decision-making, and what might be done t