When Virality Is the Message: The New Age of AI Propaganda

by virgildotcodes on 4/6/2026, 2:16:35 PM

https://time.com/article/2026/04/02/when-virality-is-the-message-the-new-age-of-ai-propaganda/

Comments

by: Alifatisk

Seeing what White House Twitter account is posting is bizarre, and a bit scary. This is a government entity, a superpower, posting extreme and unserious content to the world. It's so ridiculous that I can't barely comprehend it. I don't understand how leaders in other countries can take the current US administration seriously.Looking at the US from outside, I am starting to wonder how close they are to a societal collapse. Things seem to have gotten so extreme over there the last decade. Or maybe its not like that in reality, and its just the internet siphoning content that gets reactions.

4/6/2026, 2:24:14 PM

by: dangus

I don't know if I would call this the new age of AI propaganda as much as I would call this "unserious, unprofessional, unqualified, authoritarian leaders would rather deceive their support base than offer serious policy solutions to societal problems."We can notice in this article the conspicuous absence of the mature adults in the room using these tactics. We don't see a whole lot of party-sponsored AI memes trying to sell universal healthcare, enhanced public services and education, ending poverty and homelessness, addressing cost of living crisis, ending gasoline dependency, etc.It's the age of AI propaganda for people with no good ideas, because AI is a substitute for good ideas.

4/6/2026, 2:44:18 PM

by: AndrewKemendo

> the most compelling content wins the most reach regardless of its origin or intent.“Winning” means you have successfully manipulated a person who has so little capacity for reasoning that they will react to and make decisions from propagandaIf the plurality of humans have no ability or desire to actively resist manipulation then they are living in the world they are satisfied with

4/6/2026, 2:40:12 PM

by: dfir-lab

[dead]

4/6/2026, 3:47:58 PM