Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In a scene from the classic PBS animated series Arthur, Buster the Rabbit asked in shock. You really think someone would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?
Obviously, Buster was more than a little naive. In the 20 years since that episode aired, the internet has all but proven itself to be a bottomless source of confusion, propaganda, and misinformation. But until recently, the online lies have all come from actual people. That's no longer the case. Just recently, a team of researchers at the University of Zurich performed a highly questionable experiment using AI bots impersonating real people.
Apparently, these bots were very effective at changing the beliefs of people on Reddit. In their paper, which was entitled, Can AI Change Your View? Evidence from a Large Scale Online Field Experiment, These researchers detailed just how they tasked AI bots to study user profiles on Reddit, without their knowledge, in order to find their vulnerabilities. Then the bots posed as real people in forums and tried to persuade these human users of their left-leaning beliefs. It all worked frighteningly well.
The researchers estimated that the AI bots, some of which pretended to be rape victims, LGBTQ or government employees, achieved a persuasion rate that was six times that of humans. On topics ranging from abortion to whether Christianity is good for the world, the bots deployed arguments fine tuned to exploit vulnerabilities, often using lies, misinformation, or highly debatable claims. And let me say again, it actually worked. After conversing with the undercover bots, a whole lot of people changed their minds. Tech entrepreneur Mario Nafal put it this way.
This experiment should chill anyone who values authentic human discourse, because these digital ghosts, as he put it, cross critical ethical lines. Fabricating over 1,500 comments, quote, each precisely calibrated to exploit cognitive vulnerabilities of their human targets, end quote. Also, all of this was done without the knowledge or consent of anyone who was targeted, whose views, for all we know, could be permanently altered now by these fake and dishonest exchanges.
Now, the experiment has now been roundly condemned by Reddit Forum moderators, and rightly so. Still, as Nafal pointed out, it raises a frightening and a much bigger question. How many other digital conversations are currently being shaped by invisible algorithmic hands? And is the person you're arguing with online right now even a person? Of course, in many ways, the challenge of lying robots on the internet is just a parallel to other emerging challenges with our technologies.
Like the possibility of brainless spare bodies for extra organs or polygenic embryo screening that allows parents to choose so-called perfect babies. All the dizzying technological possibilities of our age only expose just how far our technology has outrun our ethics, how our ability to do things has overwhelmed our ability to think about whether we should do those things. As with various biotechnologies, artificial intelligence raises questions that our society is simply not prepared to answer. And sadly, for the most part, The church is not prepared for these questions either. You may remember that it was only about 10 years ago that the press went absolutely frantic over Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.
By using memes, how much more should we be concerned about a future of AI chatbots that can study our beliefs, identify our blind spots, and then try to change our minds? In the age of AI, it is more essential than ever. that we hone and cultivate discernment. That's a skill that's mentioned an awful lot in the New Testament, like in Philippians 1, where Paul prayed that the church's love needed to abound in knowledge and all discernment in order that they may approve what's excellent and be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. In Colossians 2, Paul warned his readers to not be deluded by plausible arguments.
And then he said, quote, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, not according to Christ. How much more should Christians have a strong mooring in the person who is truth and a sharp nose for deception today in an age where deception is being automated? Of course, it's important to remember that AI doesn't believe anything it's trying to convince us of, nor could it. The fact that it can be instructed to lie and then be so good at it just proves how deceptive humans are. Yes, the need of this hour is the type of discernment that Paul talked about, the type that he urged.
his church is on toward. And from the very beginning, that's been a primary mission of Breakpoint. To help cultivate discernment in God's people so that they can live faithfully and courageously in this confused cultural moment. And from the very beginning, God has made it possible for Breakpoint to be free and available because of friends and donors like you. June 30th is the final day of our fiscal year.
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For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Shane Morris. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And you can always find a printable or shareable version of today's commentary by visiting breakpoint.org.
