Ready for Chatbot Canvassers?

Slate Technology

Slate

History, Technology, Society & Culture

4.6 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The good news is voters are more persuaded by factual claims than emotional appeals or appeals to fear. But the bad news is that A.I. chatbots, trying to convince you, will keep making factual claims long after it runs out of actual facts.

Guest: David Rand, professor of information science, marketing and psychology at Cornell University

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Being evil queen has never been so fun.
0:03.0	And I am willing to do anything.
0:05.9	We will soon be at war.
0:07.7	You will have to take a side.
0:09.0	War with the Protestants.
0:10.3	What fun.
0:11.5	Or war with the Catholics.
0:12.9	None of us are safe.
0:14.4	Feels good to be bad.
0:16.0	The Serpent Queen on Channel 4.
0:18.5	Stream now.
0:20.1	Think about cheese.
0:22.1	Make your thoughts cheesier.
0:24.3	Now add 100% chicken breast fillet,
0:26.4	Chipotle sauce and ameta cheese melt.
0:28.5	And it's giving the new cheesy chicken stack at McDonald's.
0:32.1	Did we mention it's cheesy?
0:34.0	Cheese.
0:35.9	Availments with the 4th of Jan, 2026 from 11 a.m.
0:38.2	Plus and participation may vary.
0:39.3	Subjects availability.
0:42.1	Hey, everyone, it's Lizzie.
	...

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