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Persuasive Capacity, Not Persuasive Power: A Commentary on Ari Deller's "The Epistemic Costs of Super-Persuasive AI"
1University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Philosophy & Technology
|August 7, 2026
Abstract:
In a recent article in this journal, Ari Deller has argued that there are some severe epistemic costs to super-persuasive AI. In this commentary I explain why, while I agree with Deller about the epistemic costs of super-persuasive AI, I disagree with him about the likely source of the problem. Where Deller focuses on the super-persuasive power of future AI technologies, I focus on the enormous increase in persuasive capacity that is provided by a technology that can produce very large amounts of persuasive content at minimal cost.
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