In my latest Substack essay, “What Happens When Propaganda Talks Back?”I examine how conversational artificial intelligence may change the ways extremist ideologies and conspiracy theories are communicated and experienced.
Drawing on reporting about the neo-Nazi chatbot MechaHitler, research into human AI relationships and political persuasion, and my own exploratory experience with AI-generated conspiracy content, I consider how personalization, apparent companionship, and ideological validation could alter the relationship between extremist messaging and its audiences.
The essay also connects these developments to my ongoing research into conspiracy theories and enchantment, asking whether the appeal of hidden knowledge might increasingly become intertwined with the relationship users develop with an artificial conversational partner.
While existing research does not establish that extremist AI chatbots cause radicalization, the essay identifies important questions about the future of propaganda, technological intimacy, and ideological influence.