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How do people join cults, how are people radicalised, how come there are still shootings and terrorists? People can be convinced and coerced to do things by silver tongued slick talkers promising great rewards, and some people would press the button regardless if given half a chance.

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Actually, if an llm could become good at propaganda, it could quickly come to rule the world. I never considered that angle before, but it’s legitimately scary.

UPDATE: Thought of a good clarifying analogy. In one of the sequels to “Enders Game” the brother and sister of Ender adopted anonymous online personas and began writing. They were so skilled at politics and propaganda that they disrupted the entire world and the brother soon became world leader.

Is that what happened to create the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Or WW1? Or Vietnam?

Nope. Just pretty much rational people making locally-rational decisions inside a system where series of rational decisions yielded catastrophic outcomes. It’s entirely possible and history is full of such examples.

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