TBD | Ready for Chatbot Canvassers?

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate

News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 32 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 Want more What Next TBD? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.
0:06.0	We will soon be at war.
0:08.0	You will have to take a side.
0:09.0	War with the Protestants.
0:10.0	What fun.
0:11.0	Or war with the Catholics.
0:13.0	None of us are safe.
0:14.0	Feels good to be bad.
0:16.0	The Serpent Queen on Channel 4.
0:18.0	Stream now.
0:20.0	The Big Tasty is back at McDonald's, but now it's a double.
0:24.9	It's the beefiest Big Tasty of all time ever!
0:29.5	Oh, got a bit intense there.
0:31.4	The new Double Big Tasty. Now at McDonald's.
0:35.2	Available through the 4th of Jan, 26, from 11am.
0:38.0	Price and participation may vary, subject to availability.
0:42.1	Hey, everyone, it's Lizzie.
0:44.2	One of the things I try to do on this show is to take something that fascinates me,
0:49.1	whether it's something confusing or outrageous or something that needs a heavy dose of skepticism, and go deeper to
0:57.3	unravel the why behind the news, why a handful of tech dudes have so much influence in our
1:03.6	lives, why most of the money for AI seems to be going in a big circle, Why Elon Musk cheats at video games.
	...

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