A weaponized AI chatbot is flooding Canadian city councils with climate misinformation
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One morning in October of 2024, Fredericton city councillor Margo Sheppard received an email with the subject line: “The Real Policy Crisis: Prioritizing ‘Nature’ Over People.”
It was polished — almost algorithmically smooth — and it calmly urged her to reconsider Fredericton’s net-zero policies. Over the next month, a flood of similar emails followed, all aimed at getting Fredericton to abandon global climate targets.
Sheppard is used to emails from organizations on all kinds of issues, but not this many, not on this issue — and not so well crafted. She grew suspicious. She was right.
Thousands of councillors in more than 500 municipalities have received these emails.
Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers.
The chatbot’s instructions tell it to “de-emphasize the climate catastrophe narrative,” to focus on “practical environmental protection measures” and “real pollution, not CO2.”
A weaponized AI chatbot is flooding city councils with climate misinformation
Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers. The messaging is all framed to resonate with municipal officials’ duty to represent local interests. The chatbot drops the cost of misinformation to "close to zero."
Canada's National Observer (www.nationalobserver.com)
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One morning in October of 2024, Fredericton city councillor Margo Sheppard received an email with the subject line: “The Real Policy Crisis: Prioritizing ‘Nature’ Over People.”
It was polished — almost algorithmically smooth — and it calmly urged her to reconsider Fredericton’s net-zero policies. Over the next month, a flood of similar emails followed, all aimed at getting Fredericton to abandon global climate targets.
Sheppard is used to emails from organizations on all kinds of issues, but not this many, not on this issue — and not so well crafted. She grew suspicious. She was right.
Thousands of councillors in more than 500 municipalities have received these emails.
Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers.
The chatbot’s instructions tell it to “de-emphasize the climate catastrophe narrative,” to focus on “practical environmental protection measures” and “real pollution, not CO2.”
A weaponized AI chatbot is flooding city councils with climate misinformation
Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers. The messaging is all framed to resonate with municipal officials’ duty to represent local interests. The chatbot drops the cost of misinformation to "close to zero."
Canada's National Observer (www.nationalobserver.com)
I guess since the US fell the Cambridge Analytica groups are just going all-in on Canada. Well, and Poland. and New Zealand and so on. Still, they’re really ramping it up there.
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I guess since the US fell the Cambridge Analytica groups are just going all-in on Canada. Well, and Poland. and New Zealand and so on. Still, they’re really ramping it up there.
Cambridge analitica should be registered as a terrorist organization and it’s leaders should be jailed permanently.
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One morning in October of 2024, Fredericton city councillor Margo Sheppard received an email with the subject line: “The Real Policy Crisis: Prioritizing ‘Nature’ Over People.”
It was polished — almost algorithmically smooth — and it calmly urged her to reconsider Fredericton’s net-zero policies. Over the next month, a flood of similar emails followed, all aimed at getting Fredericton to abandon global climate targets.
Sheppard is used to emails from organizations on all kinds of issues, but not this many, not on this issue — and not so well crafted. She grew suspicious. She was right.
Thousands of councillors in more than 500 municipalities have received these emails.
Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers.
The chatbot’s instructions tell it to “de-emphasize the climate catastrophe narrative,” to focus on “practical environmental protection measures” and “real pollution, not CO2.”
A weaponized AI chatbot is flooding city councils with climate misinformation
Internal instructions accessed by Canada’s National Observer show that the chatbot produces tailored scripts, petitions, reports and even speeches for council chambers. The messaging is all framed to resonate with municipal officials’ duty to represent local interests. The chatbot drops the cost of misinformation to "close to zero."
Canada's National Observer (www.nationalobserver.com)
We need to make changes that these sorts of citizen requests can only be made by registered citizens (and immigrants, we humans all have rights) and have each of these mails be signed by the person.
Criminalize the use of AI for these “requests” as well, nobody should be able to use AI for this shit and no AI should ever be allowed to spam city counsels like this
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Cambridge analitica should be registered as a terrorist organization and it’s leaders should be jailed permanently.
Very literally. Sadly, they’ve gotten their tools elected in every government they’ve attacked and so that’s not going to happen.
Ironically, Mercer runs his shit out of Vancouver iirc.