Slate Business What Next: TBD | Ready for Chatbot Canvassers?
Dec 12, 2025
David Rand, a professor at Cornell University specializing in misinformation and technology, shares insights on the impact of AI chatbots in political persuasion. He reveals that while voters prefer factual claims, chatbots can sometimes churn out misinformation when they exhaust accurate information. Rand discusses how chatbots can function as cost-effective canvassers and the importance of personalization in persuasion tactics. He emphasizes the need for transparency regarding chatbot motives, highlighting the intriguing relationship between accuracy and persuasion.
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A Bot That Defended Trump
- Rand shares a lab conversation where a chatbot shifted a Harris-leaning participant toward Trump's economic arguments.
- The bot used polite acknowledgment, evidence, and a final demobilizing suggestion about skipping voting.
Chatbots Can Change Votes
- AI chatbots can persuasively change political preferences even on high-salience choices like presidential votes.
- David Rand's experiments show measurable vote-switching effects in the U.S., Canada, and Poland.
Facts Trump Flourish
- The chatbot strategy that worked best was packing conversations with factual claims and evidence rather than emotional appeals.
- In experiments, fact-rich arguments beat metaphorical or purely emotional persuasion.