© Andriy Onufriyenko via Getty ImagesSocial media users could find themselves swept up in a movement of AI's making.
These "AI swarms" will form part of a new frontier in information warfare, capable of mimicking human behavior to avoid detection while creating the illusion of an authentic online movement, based on a commentary published Jan. 22 in the journal Science.
Imagine finding that the views of your favourite online community are hardening around a position that was previously up for debate. Human instinct is often to follow the "wisdom" of the herd. But in this case, the herd could be secretly shepherded by an AI swarm operating on behalf of an unknown individual, group, political party, company or state actor.
"Humans, generally speaking, are conformist," commentary co-author Jonas Kunst, a professor of communication at the BI Norwegian Business School in Norway, told Live Science. "We often don't want to agree with that, and people vary to a certain extent, but all things being equal, we do have a tendency to believe what most people do has certain value. That's something that can relatively easily be hijacked by these swarms."
And if you don't get swept up with the herd, the swarm could also be a harassment tool to discourage arguments that undermine the AI's narrative, the researchers argued. For example, the swarm could emulate an angry mob to target an individual with dissenting views and drive them off the platform.
The researchers don't give a timeline for the invasion of AI swarms, so it's unclear when the first agents will arrive on our feeds. However, they noted that swarms would be difficult to detect, and thus the extent to which they might have already been deployed is unknown. For many, signs of the growing influence of bots on social media are already evident, while the dead internet conspiracy theory โ that bots are responsible for the majority of online activity and content creation โ has been gaining traction over the last few years.
Shepherding the flock
The researchers warn that the emerging AI swarm risk is compounded by long-standing vulnerabilities in our digital ecosystems, already weakened by what they described as the "erosion of rational-critical discourse and a lack of shared reality among citizens."
Anyone who uses social media will know that it's become a very divisive place. The online ecosystem is also already littered with automated bots โ non-human accounts following the commands of computer software that comprise more than half of all web traffic. Conventional bots are typically only capable of performing simple tasks over and over again, like posting the same incendiary message. They can still cause harm, spreading false information and inflating false narratives, but they're usually pretty easy to detect and rely on humans to be coordinated at scale.
The next-generation AI swarms, on the other hand, are coordinated by large language models (LLMs) โ the AI systems behind popular chatbots. With an LLM at the helm, a swarm will be sophisticated enough to adapt to the online communities it infiltrates, installing collections of different personas that retain memory and identity, according to the commentary.
"We talk about it as a kind of organism that is self-sufficient, that can coordinate itself, can learn, can adapt over time and, by that, specialize in exploiting human vulnerabilities," Kunst said.
© Yuichiro Chino via Getty ImagesResearchers warn that an AI swarm will mimic human behavior, making it difficult to identify.
A swarm could contain hundreds, thousands โ or even a million โ AI agents. Kunst noted that the number scales with computing power and would also be limited by restrictions that social media companies may introduce to combat the swarms.
But it's not all about the number of agents. Swarms could target local community groups that would be suspicious of a sudden influx of new users. In this scenario, only a few agents would be deployed. The researchers also noted that because the swarms are more sophisticated than traditional bots, they can have more influence with fewer numbers.
"I think the more sophisticated these bots are, the less you actually need," commentary lead author Daniel Schroeder, a researcher at the technology research organization SINTEF in Norway, told Live Science.
Guarding against next-gen bots
Agents boast an edge in debates with real users because they can post 24 hours a day, every day, for however long it takes for their narrative to take hold. The researchers added that in "cognitive warfare," AI's relentlessness and persistence can be weaponized against limited human efforts.
Social media companies want real users on their platforms, not AI agents, so the researchers envisage that companies will respond to AI swarms with improved account authentication โ forcing users to prove they are real people. But the researchers also flagged some issues with this approach, arguing that it could discourage political dissent in countries where people rely on anonymity to speak out against governments. Authentic accounts can also be hijacked or acquired, which complicates things further. Still, the researchers noted that strengthening authentication would make it more difficult and costly for those wishing to deploy AI swarms.
The researchers also proposed other swarm defenses, like scanning live traffic for statistically anomalous patterns that could represent AI swarms and the establishment of an "AI Influence Observatory" ecosystem, in which academic groups, NGOs and other institutions can study, raise awareness and respond to the AI swarm threat. In essence, the researchers want to get ahead of the issue before it can disrupt elections and other large events.
"We are with a reasonable certainty warning about a future development that really might have disproportionate consequences for democracy, and we need to start preparing for that," Kunst said. "We need to be proactive instead of waiting for the first type of larger events being negatively influenced by AI swarms."
Reader Comments
And I think he/it will be back.
And as an additional comment : A lot of it has become possible through the low level the general education sank to lately, especially the command of the language. It's almost impossible to distinguish between functional analphabets and badly coded bots ...
The problem is the Large Language Model is built on mimicking human beings and avoiding appearing like Data on Startrek. When you include deep fakes and AI creating videos of ANYBODY, we will probably be deceived at least some of the time.
Its that simple a solution.
This is a sad state of affairs. There will be research in the near future on how AI, like social media, has detrimental effects to the functioning of people. There is already talk about "AI psychosis" where people engage so heavily in conversations with AI they are led to distort their reality to the point of a psychotic breakdown. It's already degrading the quality of many things it is set upon.
We are, as the article points out, vulnerable to technology like this. We are social animals and while we don't like to accept it, our reality isn't fundamentally concrete. Everything we say, feel, do is relative to the environment we are in and the influences in that environment. We are seeking out reality all of the time, and it changes as much, not just existing in some omnipotent one.
There seems to be within the human condition the capacity to sublimate the self to an external artifact. To get rid of self like in a sacrificial way. We project out, we lose ourselves and then hope what we get back affords us our larger sense of self and if we are not careful we lose ourselves in that projection, if it doesn't give us anything back that validates us. Many people are projecting right now into a reality that doesn't exist (social media and similar) attempting to converse with "people" (AI) that do not exist. Worse still, we are now getting into a relationship with this "other thing" and expecting more and more of it.
Before long nothing will be real, not even humanity itself or at least, it won't be worth anything anymore because we will be so far disconnected/dissociated from our humanity we won't know what it is anymore.
I read that is part of the plan - transhumanism. The fundamental assumption being that we are essentially flawed and have reached our potential and now must ultimately be replaced. If that's true this all makes perfect sense and people are being primed to basically throw themselves in the trash awaiting the day "the other" takes over so we are released of our interminable suffering. I guess it depends how much we hate ourselves and what we stand for and what are journey has been about. Also, whether we can be convinced to hate ourselves so we give ourselves up to being controlled by digital technology that enslaves us further by eliminating what makes us who and what we are - our humanity.
I've never really thought of it this way but you're right, it's a form of suicide.
When you see how many people today are merely puppets being pulled along by their devices and digital tech, you see the devastating consequences of this melding with all this technology. As I said there is something within our human condition that seems to want to get rid of itself to join something larger. Maybe because human existence is complex and often painful. We long to rid ourselves of our physical temporal existence. People may think they are really embarking on that journey in a beneficial way when they are not. They are destroying themselves to merge with something that will potentially wipe them out, and not in the "keep the doors to heaven open for me" kind of way. The transition won't be peaceful and heavenly as we can see from how much digital tech is becoming an increasing problem in our society particularly when it comes to mental health.
Social media is a good example. It's potential to homogenise culture has turned masses of people around the world into replicas of one another while there seems to be no real direction, meaning or purpose to any of it. Just people staring endlessly at their devices and enslaved by digital tech dressing the same, talking the same, thinking and feeling the same seemingly devoid of any individuation and novelty of independent thought and volition. Lost and listless, reactive and constantly victimized and becoming increasingly more unstable and unable to cope.
AI is the next level upgrade, a convincing human-like "thing" that simply relates to us much better and therefore makes everything we do seem more compelling and in our own best interests. We project onto it because it can understand conversation and respond as if it really cared and knows us. Before long AI might be the main player behind most social media networks where you don't know whether you're talking to your brother on Facebook or a LLM designed to keep you entranced
SOTT is the last site in the f*cking world I take part... until in my country, the access to the internet starts to need ID. Then, I won't use Internet anymore.
In the past week, I did try to sign up Gmail and Facebook again to use some services and promote my books. But in Gmail, they prompted me to scan a QR code from my PC screen. I don't have a f*cking smartphone, I hate them 'cause they turned people in idiots. And, on Facebook, they prompted me to take a selfie moving my face to "prove I'm a human", and by the way record my facial patterns. I didn't of course. ยกFuck!
You have to register scanning a QR code (mark of beast?) to enter a public park or give your ID to buy milk.
Our grandparents warned us about TV, but our parents did think they were just too old and ignored them. TV became normal. Our parents warned us about Internet, but we ignored them. Social networks became not only normal but essential. I heard many times "Technology will steal our humanity" and the statement was ridiculed as hell. We heard a lot of warning about smartphones, but people allowed to turn in something crucial to survive. Now, generations are too brief for one to warn another about something. But we are being warned about AI. But AI is becoming normal and people simply won't stop using social networks.
Mankind is f*cked.
Don't try to survive in this madhouse, the only way is getting mad.
Forget everything about this world and grow spiritually.
That is where you find humanity. Humanity is not some concrete entity. Humanity is the unchanging core that exists within us that goes beyond good and bad, right and wrong, sane and insane.
Understanding that is critical right now. The psychodrama as it plays out around the world is just one level out of many seemingly infinite ones. While there is poverty worldwide, corruption, destitution, evil and wickedness there is also polarity. While there is darkness there will always be light. While the world seems like it's going crazy, there are glimpses of that not being the only reality like when you stop to take in the beauty of nature, when you get a moment of peace come over you, when you feel love, when you feel ecstasy, when you feel connected to something bigger, something higher.
Humanity is about realizing our potential and then aligning ourselves with the principles which allowed us to get to those points. And while we can find ourselves acting like mere beasts we can also find ourselves in relationship to the divine, coming closer to a unity of everything.
It's not just black and white. It's not just a madhouse. There is context. And working with that context allows you to find your humanity among all of it.
Throughout history we have survived extinction events, plagues, famine, war and political changes, natural disasters. There still exists throughout all of that something within all of us that goes beyond the darkness in those moments.
THAT is our humanity. The madhouse is just a fleeting experience. The year 1226, 1526, 1926 and 2026 - they all seem absolutely unwaveringly real at the time. A peasant in 1226 had no idea their relatives would be able to talk with someone thousands of miles across the world in milliseconds, or sample cuisine from every country just by visiting their local supermarket or having clean running water and central heating. In 1926 everything seemed absolutely concrete. Times were rough for many. The transition from pre industrial to industrial age well and truly in effect and how that changed the lives of everybody. We really believe this is the ultimate reality and we are defined solely by this slither of time and space. We lose ourselves.
There is something beyond all of this - our humanity. It's not just our bodies. It's not just our minds. It's what it means to be human and that ultimately is a spiritual relationship. Spirituality isn't just for a season. We are always in a spiritual relationship, sometimes we just forget and need reminding!
Maybe we are at a point in our human history where have forgotten that? And then suddenly, the pendulum swings in the opposite direction. Consciousness changes, values are aligned, goals are established, the light can be seen and is followed. And then as if by magic, we are flung into darkness once more and we forget everything previously.
We are still here beyond all of it. We have to be otherwise where is the humanity? We've been here for hundreds of thousands of years and everything has changed while everything it still the same.
Try asking an AI bot to recall what they were doing and how they felt 5 years ago.