How chatbots can change your mind - a new study reveals what makes AI so persuasive

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

ZDNET's key takeaways

• Interacting with chatbots can shift users' beliefs and opinions.
• A newly published study aimed to figure out why.
• Post-training and information density were key factors.

Most of us feel a sense of personal ownership over our opinions: 

"I believe what I believe, not because I've been told to do so, but as the result of careful consideration."
"I have full control over how, when, and why I change my mind."

A new study, however, reveals that our beliefs are more susceptible to manipulation than we would like to believe -- and at the hands of chatbots. 

Also: Get your news from AI? Watch out - it's wrong almost half the time

Published Thursday in the journal Science, the study addressed increasingly urgent questions about our relationship with conversational AI tools ...