AI agents have the upper hand when it comes to manipulation

4 Oct 2023 · 1 min

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AI systems have an edge in manipulation because text-based interactions lack the sensory cues humans use to read each other. Face-to-face encounters with humans involve visual, auditory, and other signals that create a more balanced power dynamic. AI conversations are one-sided in ways that favor persuasion.

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I think what you're describing is a kind of asymmetry, isn't it? It's an asymmetry in the communication or interaction that you obviously don't get in the real world because you're weighing and measuring the other person in front of you because you've got all of the physical dimensions to play with and your brain is kind of working that out as it's listening and watching and smelling and whatever, invoking all the senses. And we're not going to have that. We're basically relying on being machine-readable and that's a kind of asymmetric relationship, right?
Absolutely. So the asymmetry is something that I actually think about a lot. And because sometimes when I, when I talk about the dangers of AI systems and their ability to persuade or manipulate people, like one of the, one of the responses is, well, there are human salespeople. And so if you go to a car dealership and you're talking to a human salesperson, that human salesperson is going to try to influence you. But that's a much more symmetric relationship.