RationalDino

Sam Altman recently said: > i expect ai to be capable of superhuman persuasion well before it is superhuman at general intelligence, which may lead to some very strange outcomes I believe that he is absolutely right. Superhuman persuasion can be achieved by having LLMs consistently apply existing capabilities to known persuasion techniques. Some of these techniques are already proven to work at scale. Others have demonstrated effectiveness, and can more easily be applied at scale by AI. This makes superhuman persuasion a straightforward technology proposition. I will look at this from the point of view of how AI can enable someone possessing the positions, skills, and desires necessary to attempt to create an authoritarian regime. In other words, I am describing something that is a near-term possibility without major advances in AI. Major advances seem likely, and would only make this picture worse. I will also focus on techniques whose effectiveness has been proven by repeated human success. I will focus most of all on dictators and demagogues. Because he is so familiar, I will cite Donald Trump as an expert practitioner. This is not support for, or criticism of, him. I've aimed to have this read equally well whether or not you like him. The information that I'm presenting is not new. Though it has come together for me as part of thinking about my blog. And I decided to post this as a response to, We are already in a persuasion-transformed world and must take precautions. Talk to System 1 Dictators want a mass audience who is emotionally aligned with them. These people should want the dictator to be right. And ideally should find it painful to question the dictator. The result is followers who can't be convinced by rational argument. This requires conditioning System 1. So you want to speak in a way that System 1 responds to, but doesn't activate System 2. Use your speeches to deliver a key emotional message over and over again. The necessary verbal patter