We have a problem. The internet that once connected us has now trained engines working to disconnect us.
Over the last 30 years , humans have successfully created over 1.5 billion websites (Source). While many of these sites are inactive, a great number of active sites continue to provide information, resources, and tools to the world. We connect over social media. We play games with each other across the world. We can learn who the 11th president of the United States was in seconds – James Knox Polk.
Yet, all of this progress has led to a significant threat. The information utopia that we worked so hard on has trained its counterpart, LLM technology.
Large language model (LLM) technology can now create human-sounding text based on prompts. This holds great power for both good and evil.
So, what happens when this great power is granted upon the masses?
With big money up for grabs, startups have granted this tech to practically anybody with a credit card, phone number, and internet access.
While exciting at first, the results have been nothing short of terrifying.
And, I am not as worried about ChatGPT getting something wrong as I am of a more sinister threat.
This threat is autonomous psychological operation machines.
Psychological warfare involves the planned use of propaganda and other psychological operations to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of opposition groups (Read more).
Instead of direct confrontation from the outside, this form of warfare aims to destabilize the target from within.
The attackers can almost be impossible to track down. And, the attacks can be scaled for cents on the dollar.
Let me show some example potential psyop comments. This example is from the top news app in the United States, NewsBreak.com. However, while I am 99% sure of their nature, I can never be 100% sure due to the anonymity of the attacks. This is what is so terrifying.
Disguised as real people, the autonomous bots seek to sow division, anger, and confusion in the target society.
Without an understanding of what is taking place, many interpret these comments as the comments of REAL people.
To a quick glance, it can feel like the world is falling apart.
The problem gets deeper though.
Our once revolutionary algorithm systems can easily be manipulated. Since 2009, the algos have been built to recommend us content that interests us. Posts with higher engagement rates = More visibility.
In 2024, this means autonomous human-sounding comment bots can boost divisional content to unprecedented reach. Instead of being limited to a small forum, psychological operations now spread like viruses to a large portion of a target country.
The problem goes one final step further.
This reach earns big $$$. And, companies respond very well to incentives. Media companies with the former purpose to inform are now incentivized to farm engagement.
I call this “rage farming.” It is the act of writing short-form prose in the goal of getting engagement-boosting reactions.
The effects are real and dangerous.
On July 13th, we had an assassination attempt on a former President.
While not innocent of following the same “rage farming” techniques, the president nor his opposition should ever see bullets inches from their face.
Attacks like these come from the life or death nature influenced upon us by the internet world.
The question now is: “how do we wake up a nation from this phone psychosis, and come back to real life (AKA, off the web)?”