Author: Dana McKay, Associate Dean, Interaction, Technology and Information, RMIT University

In the early days of the internet, famously, no one knew if you were a dog. The internet was a place where you could be anyone. More importantly, it was also a place where you could find anything: that rare book, or the perfect pair of neon-pink tights, or a community for your unusual health condition. The underlying model of the internet was that it was decentralised, and everyone had the right to have a voice – even dogs. Marketers realised they could use the internet to make money, but no one had figured out how yet. The original search…

New research published in Science shows that for some people who believe in conspiracy theories, a fact-based conversation with an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can “pull them out of the rabbit hole”. Better yet, it seems to keep them out for at least two months. This research, carried out by Thomas Costello at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues, shows promise for a challenging social problem: belief in conspiracy theories. Some conspiracy theories are relatively harmless, such as believing Finland doesn’t exist (which is fine, until you meet a Finn). Other theories, though, reduce trust in public institutions and…