From the Fringe Web to Real Life: How Seriously Should We Be Taking Conspiracy Theories?
Question Everything
Brian Reed
4.6 • 707 Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Back in December, we did an episode about Pyrra, an AI-powered software that tracks sifts through the far corners of the internet – in some places you probably haven’t even heard of – to see what narratives are emerging from the people who post there. A lot of these are conspiracy theories, and also violent threats.
This week, we check back in with the creator of that software, Dr. Welton Chang, about what narratives he’s seeing, right now, that might soon make the jump from fringe internet posts to actually having an impact in the real world.
Welton’s especially concerned about the violent rhetoric aimed at one particular group of people which has been topping the charts in recent weeks.
Welton is the creator of Pyrra Technologies, and Vice President for Digital Intelligence Solutions at AlertMedia.
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“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on Question Everything, we drag an AI-powered sifter through the mushy excrement of the internet |
| 0:05.2 | and dig out the conspiracy theories and wild ideas that are about to matter in the real world. |
| 0:15.6 | We did this episode back in December, maybe you remember it, about an AI software called Pira, which sucks in millions of posts from social media platforms each week, including a lot of fringy ones you may not know about, and runs AI on them to figure out what prominent narratives are emerging across the internet. |
| 0:35.6 | This is beyond keywords and trending searches on Google. |
| 0:39.4 | Pira can figure out which ideas seem to be forming in real time as people are posting online. |
| 0:46.4 | And a lot of times these are conspiracies that are gaining traction. |
| 0:49.9 | The week we did this in December, the top narratives people were discussing had to do with Bill Gates trying to depopulate the earth, people saying that the Democratic Party should be ended, and that a far-right influencer named Nick Fuentes was working for the feds. |
| 1:04.9 | I wondered back then, okay, so this seems like a lot of bros or in-cells shit posting, a lot of bizarre ideas and alt facts. |
| 1:12.5 | So what? |
| 1:13.6 | Would that stuff have any impact out here in the real world? |
| 1:17.0 | But the folks at Pira, who tracked this online chatter day in and day out, |
| 1:20.9 | said, yes, sometimes these narratives do burst into the physical and political world |
| 1:25.0 | and drive real events. |
| 1:28.2 | Last time, as an example, the guy I was interviewing from the company pointed me to a bunch of talk he was seeing about a scandal that had just happened in the Romanian presidential election. |
| 1:37.9 | A far-right candidate had won. Officials thought there had been foreign election interference. |
| 1:43.0 | A court ended up overturning the election. |
| 1:45.0 | And Pira was flagging that in the far corners of the internet, when that happened, |
| 1:49.0 | some people were outraged. |
| 1:51.0 | They were pissed that the elite judges had tossed out their candidate, |
| 1:54.0 | and they thought maybe even the CIA or somebody could have been behind it. |
| 1:58.0 | I was kind of like, so what if people are letting off steam about this |
| 2:01.3 | online, talking about deep state conspiracies or whatever? But the peer guy told me that I should |
... |
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