[ExI] LLMs plus AI Agents means Astroturfing gone wild and crazy

[Adrian Tymes]

This isn't even that new.  Automated social media swarms to create the
false impression of consensus go back to at least the 2010s.

On Sun, Apr 26, 2026 at 10:37 AM BillK via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> Experts Warn of AI Swarms Hijacking Democracy With Fake Citizens
> "These systems are capable of coordinating autonomously, infiltrating
> communities, and fabricating consensus efficiently."
> By Joe Wilkins  Published Apr 26, 2026
>
> <https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-swarm-democracy-security>
> Quote:
> The new research examines the scale at which AI, namely large language
> models (LLMs) and autonomous agents, can be used to manipulate
> opinions on a “population-wide level.” The researchers point to a
> specific threat in the form of AI swarms: massive assemblages of
> autonomous AI tools that can ape real humans en masse via the internet
> and social media.
> “Fusing LLM reasoning with multiagent architectures, these systems are
> capable of coordinating autonomously, infiltrating communities, and
> fabricating consensus efficiently,” the paper’s abstract warns.
> -----------------
>
> Astroturfing campaigns before AI arrived were already used to fake
> popular opinion.  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing>
>
> But now AI can mount huge campaigns to sway public opinion on social media.
> If AI agents are allowed to vote, then voting becomes meaningless.
> They may say voters must turn up in person, but it won't be long until
> a robot walks in and tries to vote.  ;)
>
> BillK
>
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