Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI • Hacker News Board

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#51

Post by leosanchez » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 3:03 AM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #13

shevy-java wrote: post #9

That explains the strategy used by the current US administration. They ask ChatGPT what to do. And this then happen. The output is stupid chaos. Can we sue the responsible administration? I mean globally - they need to pay for the damage here. Inflation already went up significantly in the EU. Why do Europeans have to suffer due to the orange AI king?

I really don’t think AI has anything to do with the current US administration behavior. If not with AI, they would do the same

I think the liberation day tariff formula was AI generated for sure. Also, I think OP is talking about DOGE staff asking ChatGPT if something is DEI

(Not an American)

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#52

Post by boothby » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 5:17 AM UTC

bigwheels wrote: post #45

boothby wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political campaigns can now afford to target social media users on a 1:1 basis. A bot with 10k followers per month is an old-world threat, detectable with old-world methods. A solitary bot churning out content to the adoration of its fans, of which you are the only human, is the new threat.

[flagged]

I'm unclear as to why you think I need to read that; I don't use LLMs for anything much less to speak for me.

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#53

Post by dgellow » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 8:41 AM UTC

leosanchez wrote: post #51

dgellow wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don’t think AI has anything to do with the current US administration behavior. If not with AI, they would do the same

I think the liberation day tariff formula was AI generated for sure. Also, I think OP is talking about DOGE staff asking ChatGPT if something is DEI (Not an American)

Yes, they have been using AI. But I’m convinced they would have done almost exactly the same without

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#54

Post by raxxorraxor » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:03 PM UTC

perarneng wrote: post #18

If you apply 2nd order thinking to this story it's easy to see how dangerous AI in combination with social media is. It's worrying that so few care about this issue. How is it possible to have reliable elections or a functioning democracy if people are this easily manipulated and fooled. It was always easy to fool some people but social med powered by AI makes it ridiculously easy and cheap to do mass social engineer…

> if people are this easily manipulated and fooled.

They always were. Problem is that people generally think the others are the ones being manipulated. Partially true...

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#55

Post by palmotea » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:28 PM UTC

java-man wrote: post #44

palmotea wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn’t explain why so many more fall for it. It's pretty easy: he started out trying to create a "hot girl" influencer, then refined that. It could be his starting point was biased towards filling a certain type of conservative fantasy, but wasn't as easily adaptable to progressives. For instance: it could be that lonely straight progressive men are more neurotic about their sexuality, and thus less-likely to r…

"Progressive fantasy" would be AOC and Bernie, and we already have that in real life.

> "Progressive fantasy" would be AOC and Bernie, and we already have that in real life.

That's not the kind of fantasy I'm talking about. I'm talking about the kind of fantasy person that could cause a progressive to feel some pull towards a para-social relationship. That kind of thing was obviously at play with this character. I don't think you're going to get that from a politician.

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#56

Post by red-iron-pine » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 3:32 PM UTC

raxxorraxor wrote: post #54

perarneng wrote: post #18

If you apply 2nd order thinking to this story it's easy to see how dangerous AI in combination with social media is. It's worrying that so few care about this issue. How is it possible to have reliable elections or a functioning democracy if people are this easily manipulated and fooled. It was always easy to fool some people but social med powered by AI makes it ridiculously easy and cheap to do mass social engineer…

> if people are this easily manipulated and fooled. They always were. Problem is that people generally think the others are the ones being manipulated. Partially true...

"marketing works, on you, even when you understand how marketing works"

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#57

Post by red-iron-pine » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 3:33 PM UTC

tbrownaw wrote: post #26

perarneng wrote: post #18

If you apply 2nd order thinking to this story it's easy to see how dangerous AI in combination with social media is. It's worrying that so few care about this issue. How is it possible to have reliable elections or a functioning democracy if people are this easily manipulated and fooled. It was always easy to fool some people but social med powered by AI makes it ridiculously easy and cheap to do mass social engineer…

Meh. The Internet has always had a high noise floor, AI here just takes an existing problem and makes it slightly worse.

far more than "slightly"

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#58

Post by Henchman21 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

perarneng wrote: post #18

If you apply 2nd order thinking to this story it's easy to see how dangerous AI in combination with social media is. It's worrying that so few care about this issue. How is it possible to have reliable elections or a functioning democracy if people are this easily manipulated and fooled. It was always easy to fool some people but social med powered by AI makes it ridiculously easy and cheap to do mass social engineer…

Did we have a functioning democracy before AI? Before social media? Before smartphones?

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#59

Post by krapp » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC

Henchman21 wrote: post #58

perarneng wrote: post #18

If you apply 2nd order thinking to this story it's easy to see how dangerous AI in combination with social media is. It's worrying that so few care about this issue. How is it possible to have reliable elections or a functioning democracy if people are this easily manipulated and fooled. It was always easy to fool some people but social med powered by AI makes it ridiculously easy and cheap to do mass social engineer…

Did we have a functioning democracy before AI? Before social media? Before smartphones?

Yes.

Our democracy did actually function better before AI, social media and smartphones than it does now.

Everything was not always as bad as it is now. I know that's heresy and thoughtcrime to suggest, but it is true. Things weren't always perfect in the past, but in many ways they were better.

Re: Top MAGA influencer revealed to be AI

#60

Post by Henchman21 » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

krapp wrote: post #59

Henchman21 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did we have a functioning democracy before AI? Before social media? Before smartphones?

Yes. Our democracy did actually function better before AI, social media and smartphones than it does now. Everything was not always as bad as it is now. I know that's heresy and thoughtcrime to suggest, but it is true. Things weren't always perfect in the past, but in many ways they were better.

Indeed they were; I lived through it too. So, logically, the solution seems to be: get rid of AI, social media, and smartphones?