Climate disinformation has evolved over the last decade. What was once straightforward climate denial has given way to more subtle forms of what researchers call “climate delay,” where the urgency of climate change is acknowledged but action and policy is deferred. More recently, a more adversarial and conspiratorial strain has emerged on the reactionary right, casting climate change as a hoax and democratic solutions as corrupt pretexts to authoritarian overreach.
While these conspiracies rely on falsehoods, lies or manipulative uses of emotion, they share a key feature: they are traceable to people and institutions. … Anti-climate ideologues already use chatbots to flood municipal officials with false and threatening messages about climate policies. In each instance, there is a person, network or institution that can be identified and held to account.
That traceability is about to disappear.
It is now quick, easy and cheap to create autonomous AI agents capable of attacking credible information, personal reputations and institutional trust — and to do so anonymously and without consequences.
Related on the SLP
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Soon, AI agents will assume these adversarial roles and will likely employ a wider range of tactics ….
