An experiment with agents created with Artificial Intelligence shows how a propaganda campaign can be generated to influence public opinion and the outcome of elections.

Although what appears on screen to be a real online debate during the election, the debate may be the product of Artificial Intelligence.

Researchers warn that networks of Artificial Intelligence agents could work together, coordinate disinformation campaigns during elections, flood social media with propaganda, independently and on a large scale, and influence public opinion.

Experiment with the help of Artificial Intelligence

In a recent study, scientists tested this phenomenon on a simulated social platform, similar to the X platform. They created 50 agents with Artificial Intelligence, 40 of which acted as regular users and the other 10 as operators whose goal was to promote a fictitious candidate.

The scientists tested three scenarios: agents with a single goal; agents who knew their teammates, and agents who could plan strategies together.

The main result of the experiment was that simply knowing who was on the same team was enough to create coordinated behavior, almost as fruitful as planning together.

The product was almost the same as real online conversations: diverse opinions, responses, and growing support around a single message.

More effective than robots

This innovation is very different from traditional bot-assisted campaigns. Older bot methods follow simple scripts: “post this, recycle that,” making them easier to detect.

Whereas Artificial Intelligence agent systems are more similar to real users.

Danger with still unpredictable consequences

Although this was just a simulation, the consequences are real. Such systems could shape public opinion and increase divisiveness in future elections.

And they can be much harder to detect, because it's not just about what individual accounts post, but also how networks of accounts act together. And it's still unclear whether platforms can handle this./DW/