AI tools are making political content on social media more polarizing

In short: AI is starting to shape what voters see and believe online, and it can push people into more divided political camps.

What's going on

AI is amplifying some of social media’s most divisive features. One major reason is recommendation systems, which decide what posts you see next. They often favor content that keeps you scrolling, which can trap people in “echo chambers” (like only hearing opinions that match your own).

Another driver is targeted political advertising. AI helps campaigns and outside groups aim different messages at different people, sometimes down to very small groups. This “microtargeting” can make politics feel like many separate conversations, instead of one shared debate.

AI chatbots are also becoming a common place to get political information. Large language models, which are text generators trained on lots of online writing, can adjust their answers based on clues from a user. Some research suggests these systems can subtly lean one way, depending on how a question is framed.

Finally, generative AI is making synthetic content cheap and fast to create. That includes fake photos, videos, and audio, sometimes called deepfakes (realistic fakes). Like a copy machine that can produce endless flyers, this can help misleading claims spread quickly.

What to watch

The big question is transparency. If voters cannot tell why they are seeing a certain post, ad, or chatbot answer, trust in elections can erode faster and with less visibility than before. Watch for clearer labeling of AI-made content, stronger rules for political ads, and tools that detect manipulation in real time.

Source: NYTimes