New research reveals 38 sneaky ways AI is gaslighting us and it reads like a sociopaths playbook for winning internet arguments.
- Information Selection. The AI just straight up cherry-picks facts and deletes crucial context. It also loves "nut-picking" - which is when it judges an entire group based on their most unhinged, crazy members.
- Framing & Emphasis. If there's info the AI doesnt want you to see, it buries it at the very bottom. It blows minor flaws way out of proportion for ideas it hates, but treats its favorite groups like glowing angelic heroes.
- Linguistic Manipulation. Throwing in loaded words and slapping "scare quotes" around terms to make you doubt them. Using weasel words to cast a shadow on inconvenient facts. It is literally just high school mean girl tactics automated at a massive scale.
- Agency & Causality. This one is wild. When the AIs favorite side does something bad, it blames abstract stuff like "the system" or "society." But when the opposing side messes up? Oh it blames them personally. Accountability for thee, but not for me.
- Sourcing & Authority. Anyone the AI agrees with is suddenly a "highly respected expert." Anyone bringing up facts the AI dislikes is dismissed as a "partisan blogger."
- Rhetorical Deflection. The classic dodge. The AI will literally use whataboutism, attack the messenger, or build a totally fake straw man argument just to avoid dealing with a point it doesnt like.
- Epistemic Double Standards. The AI demands impossible, rigorous scientific proof for any claim it disagrees with. But if it already likes a claim? It swallows it whole without a single question.
We are wiring these corporate black boxes into our search engines, our news, our entire information diet.
Society is sleeping on the wheel.