Dan Mattingly (Alesina Seminar)
Date and Time
Location
Speaker & Title
Dan Mattingly (Yale), "AI Slopaganda and Its Limits"
Abstract
There is growing concern that AI-generated propaganda, or “slopaganda,” can sway political views. Does the pro-CCP messaging embedded in popular Chinese AI models persuade global audiences that China's political system is superior? We conduct randomized experiments in 12 countries examining how Chinese AI shapes attitudes toward China. In the first study, exposure to DeepSeek, a widely used and consistently pro-CCP model, produces only modest effects on attitudes toward China. These effects do not increase with more intensive use and disappear after a week. In a follow-up experiment, we test additional Chinese AI models and find that they are less persuasive than American AI models and other forms of Chinese propaganda, including Chinese state media and pro-China TikTok creators. In contrast to work showing AI's persuasive power, we find limited effects of authoritarian “slopaganda” abroad, possibly because China's domestic political controls on AI undermine its persuasiveness among international audiences.
Co-sponsored by FAS and IQSS, the Alberto Alesina Seminar on Political Economy supports research-related activities that integrate the study of economics and politics, whether by studying economic behavior in the political process or political behavior in the marketplace. In general, positive political economy is concerned with showing how observed differences among institutions affect political and economic outcomes in various social, economic, and political systems and how the institutions themselves change and develop in response to individual and collective beliefs, preferences, and strategies.
All interested faculty and students are invited to attend.