Infiltrated algorithms and Ia agents, the advance of the new persuaders

In this time of war, which even in marketing appears to be upside down, even an iconic soft toy of the youngest can lose its innocence and be conscripted and sent to the front, becoming an instrument of military propaganda. This recently happened to a teddy bear with big ears, disproportionate eyes and brown fur. The emotional storytelling is that he came from an exotic country, found by chance in a crate of oranges in the Moscow general market. His name is Čeburaška, affectionately Če to everyone, a little beast that appeared on Russian TV back in 1969 thanks to artist Leonid Švarcman. An overwhelming success. Če has always united generations and embodied friendship, even if today she appears in camouflage and fully armed, embroidered on the patches of soldiers' uniforms and even drawn in a flamethrower used in Ukraine. Nothing new under the dull sun of conflict. Already in the past cartoons have featured prominently in war propaganda. After all, they conveyed simple and immediate messages, trying to persuade audiences. But today the leap is quantum because the persuasive communication campaign becomes transmedia and therefore much more impactful.

Surprise, or maybe not. It is precisely persuasion that is creeping into immersive technologies and in that artificial intelligence increasingly adept at offering personalised solutions. An investigation published a few days ago in the American magazine The Atlantic and taken up by Time describes an experiment that took place in a user community on Reddit in which Ai agents infiltrated to discuss and persuade members without their knowledge. In fact, the Ai generated arguments calibrated according to the users' personalities and deep-seated values, detected through their online history. A form of deep tailoring that managed to act precisely as covert persuasion: not visible in content, but effective on a psychological level. Hence the warning: Ai can manipulate opinions and behaviour in an invisible and potentially harmful way.

"Today, more than ever before, we are often unwitting victims of Ai agents and people of dubious morality who try to squeeze money out of us for nothing, of fantom experts in anything who promise us miracles at a low price and very little effort. Moreover, the world runs at the speed of light and is overstimulated: if you want to be heard, you have to know how. If you want to get noticed in this chaos, you have to know the rules of the game,' says Paolo Borzacchiello, author of 'Instant Persuasion. The secrets of neuroscience applied to persuasion', a guide to understanding and mastering persuasive dynamics.

"Persuasion is not manipulation, nor is it an obscure art reserved for a select few. It is not deception and it is not undue pressure. It is the ability to consciously inspire, influence and direct the decisions of others, relying on cognitive mechanisms deeply rooted in the human brain. It is not an innate talent, but a skill that anyone can learn and hone,' Borzacchiello points out. But beware. In the time marked by artificial intelligence, the most effective answers come from linguistic intelligence. "Words are the way we have to modify the perception of the end consumer, but not only: they are also the tool we can use to make him feel good, to enhance his experience, to design emotional scenarios that are good for everyone, including us. With the right words we can create or consolidate valuable relationships, excite, build long-lasting empathic bonds,' says Borzacchiello.

More than fifty years later, the persuaders are still covert, even if they have changed mask, nestling in the endless scroll of a smartphone. The mechanisms that Vance Packard, a US sociologist with a focus on the manipulation of advertising and consumer psychology, theorised about in 1957 in an essay that became a bestseller have not disappeared, but have been incorporated into the code. After all, it is precisely the algorithms that are the new hidden persuaders, presenting themselves as tailor-made services. They have not disappeared, but have become system, interface, intuition. They do not talk to you, but suggest you. They do not persuade you, but predict you. On the other hand, apps use red to create urgency, the sounds of notifications mimic Pavlovian reflexes, the visual language traces the old advertising schemes. In short, the hidden persuaders of yesterday are still among us disguised as user experience.