Globular springtail. More pictures in body [OC]
cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/39841217
This springtail was about 1mm long. Lens: Laowa 25mm f/2.8 Ultra Macro 2.5-5X. two of the photos are focus stacked.
Grizzly Attack Injures 11 In Bella Coola
Grizzly Attack Injures 11 In Bella Coola - Trending News and Blogs
Breaking News:- 11 People Injured in Bella Coola. A grizzly bear attack schoolchildren and teachers. Prompting an intense community-wide search for the stillGovvacancy
How Israel avoided Eurovision ouster and the diplomatic push that changed the vote
Israel secured its place in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest only after an intensive, months-long diplomatic campaign that unfolded largely behind the scenes, Israeli officials said Thursday, describing a coordinated effort involving KAN executives, government advisers and the President’s Residence to prevent the country’s expulsion.
A senior EBU official, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to comment publicly, told ynet the organization now faces “a major challenge,” pointing to a wave of cancellations and reputational damage.
Herzog praised the Israeli delegation for what officials described as a painstaking diplomatic effort. “Israel deserves to be represented on every stage,” he said, adding that the decision reflected “solidarity and cooperation” among those who defended Israel’s participation.
How Israel avoided Eurovision ouster and the diplomatic push that changed the vote
Israel’s delegation mounted an intensive lobbying effort in Geneva, backed by a special team formed by President Herzog, as the EBU advanced new rules critics said targeted IsraelRan Boker (ynetglobal)
My Saint Bernard Stole the Toy Drive
So today was the annual Toy Lift at the Ohio Valley Mall, which basically means a bunch of us show up in the freezing cold to prove we’re still decent humans who can do something other than complain on the internet. And because life is a cosmic joke with a dark sense of humor, I brought Jersey. Yes, my 150-pound Saint Bernard dressed like an elf who lost a bet to a lumberjack. She strutted through that parking lot like she owned the whole rescue operation, and honestly, she kind of did. Kids were losing their minds, adults were taking photos like she was some kind of canine celebrity, and I was just there trying not to slip on the ice and eat pavement in front of the sheriff’s department.
At one point I’m standing there talking to a FedEx driver who looks like he walked straight out of a beard-oil commercial, and Jersey decides to flop dramatically onto the asphalt like a Victorian woman fainting on a couch. Meanwhile, the Chick-fil-A cow strolls over, looking like it escaped from a holiday fever dream. Jersey gives it this expression like, “I’m not paid enough to engage with mascots,” and honestly, same. Somehow this turns into a full photo-op with firefighters, sheriff’s deputies, utility crews, and random mall stragglers. My dog had more range than a Hollywood actor and more patience than anyone working retail in December.
By the end of the day, my toes were numb, my caffeine buzz was fading, and Jersey was still prancing around like she was running for office. But we did it. We showed up, froze our butts off, and helped collect toys so some kids have a better Christmas. And yeah, I’ll complain about everything because it’s my calling in life, but doing something good with my giant goofball of a dog? I’ll take that chaos any day.
Tech-tinkering geocacher who questions everything and dodges people on a purpose. Introverted agnostic, punk at heart, and a self-taught dev who learned things the hard way because nothing else ever sticks.
Eric Foltin
Geocacher / Pessimist / Agnostic / Introvert / Archivist / Punker / Self-Taught DevEric Foltin
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – „Fargo“ (1996)
Der absolut perfekte Film zur Jahreszeit. Ein kalter, klarer Kristall. Und ein früher Höhepunkt, der die Handschrift seiner Regisseure nachhaltig definiert hat. Ich bin da einfach ein Fan. Deshalb sehen Sie es mir bitte nach, wenn ich diesen Film einfach absurd feiern möchte, für das, was er immer noch ist. Ein Geniestreich von Joel Coen & Ethan Coen und ein frühes Weihnachtsgeschenk in der Mediathek. (ARTE, Wh.)
Zum Blog: nexxtpress.de/mediathekperlen/…
Ich glaub da war der server mal kurz down? Bekam bis eben garnix, nun wieder da..
Allerdings fargo konkret nicht, vermutlich rechtebedingt.
@taktiktafel @mediathekperlen
Ein Browserplugin für Fire/Librefox tut da zwischendurch wirklich gute Dienste: addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/…
@stubenhocker @taktiktafel @mediathekperlen
Video DownloadHelper – Holen Sie sich diese Erweiterung für 🦊 Firefox (de)
Laden Sie Video DownloadHelper für Firefox herunter. Die einfache Möglichkeit, Webvideos von Hunderten von YouTube-ähnlichen Websites herunterzuladen und zu konvertieren.addons.mozilla.org
Apparent coup attempt in Benin, govt claims army has situation 'under control'
cross-posted from: lemmy.eco.br/post/18878447
A group of soldiers on Sunday appeared on Benin's state television claiming to have removed President Patrice Talon from office and dissolved all state institutions. Talon's office, meanwhile, said that loyalist forces had managed to get the situation "under control".
TIL: Active sort is the New Comments of PieFed
Currently getting familiar with PieFed as my new main platform after using Lemmy for more than 2 years.
I was missing the New Comments filter from Lemmy that shows you posts that had recent comments.
After some digging on Codeberg, I found this issue and found out that the Active sort on PieFed shows you posts with recent comments.
tl;dr New Comments on Lemmy is Active on PieFed
"New comments" filter
Hello everyone, Opening a dedicate issue from the discussion on https://codeberg.org/rimu/pyfedi/issues/142 In a nutshell, would it be possible to have a "New comments" filter on PieFed? Lemmy does it already, and that's a feature I use a lot t…Codeberg.org
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From the Lemmy docs:
Active (default): Calculates a rank based on the score and time of the latest comment, with decay over time
La UK en 2027 okazos en Aŭstralio
La Estraro de Universala Esperanto-Asocio decidis, ke la 112-a Universala Kongreso de Esperanto en 2027 okazos en Melburno, Aŭstralio.
liberafolio.org/2025/12/07/la-…
S Carey - Supermoon (2015)
Sean Carey, batterista improvvisamente scopertosi compositore, si è visto assalire da un’orda di critici, pronti a smantellare qualsiasi suo tentativo creativo, ma smessi i panni del songwriter e abbracciati quelli dell’impressionista sonoro, con “Range Of Light” ha trovato finalmente il coraggio di uscire dall’ombra di Bon Iver, ridefinendo il suo ruolo di outsider... Leggi e ascolta...
S Carey - Supermoon (2015)
Sean Carey, batterista improvvisamente scopertosi compositore, si è visto assalire da un’orda di critici, pronti a smantellare qualsiasi suo tentativo creativo, ma smessi i panni del songwriter e abbracciati quelli dell’impressionista sonoro, con “Range Of Light” ha trovato finalmente il coraggio di uscire dall’ombra di Bon Iver, ridefinendo il suo ruolo di outsider. Sarà per il tono austero frutto dei sui studi classici, o per quella tendenza al descrittivo quasi pittorico degli arrangiamenti, S. Carey resta un musicista per pochi eletti o per anime pronte a cedere alle emozioni più sotterranee e delicate, quelle prive di qualsiasi risvolto sociale o intellettuale... artesuono.blogspot.com/2015/03…
Ascolta il disco: album.link/s/7buSLLLdcxZybngEE…
Home – Identità DigitaleSono su: Mastodon.uno - Pixelfed - Feddit
S Carey - Supermoon (2015)
di Gianfranco Marmoro Sean Carey, batterista improvvisamente scopertosi compositore, si è visto assalire da un’orda di critici, pronti ...Silvano Bottaro (Blogger)
RRF Caserta. Cultura. Letteratura Francese. Il romanzo cortese
This Month’s Quote
Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.
Bill Nye
Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway
A New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. She was later hailed as a hero.
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Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway
cross-posted from: lemmy.zip/post/54484549
A New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. She was later hailed as a hero.
Woman Hailed as Hero for Smashing Man's Meta Smart Glasses on Subway
A New York subway rider has accused a woman of breaking his Meta smart glasses. She was later hailed as a hero.
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Keep talking with US, Turkey’s Erdogan tells Venezuela’s Maduro » Borneo Bulletin Online
I got my work printed.
It wasn’t cheap, but goddammit photography is magical when it doesn’t glow and is bigger than a phone.
I love this very much.
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BRICS Film Festival In Fortaleza Shows How Global South Cinema Is Quietly Rewiring Influence
- Free BRICS film festival in Fortaleza turns a cultural event into real soft power.
- Brazil uses its BRICS presidency to market itself as a pragmatic, business-friendly creative hub.
- Films and panels bypass traditional Western gatekeepers and build direct ties among emerging-market industries.
BRICS Film Festival In Fortaleza Shows How Global South Cinema
Key PointsFree BRICS film festival in Fortaleza turns a cultural event into real soft power.Brazil uses its BRICS presidencyAdele Cardin (The Rio Times)
Optimus is now in its early release program and available to approved customers.
Optimus is now in its early release program and available to approved customers.
Musk had said at the start of 2025 that the company would build at least 5,000 robots this year, but The Information reported in July that production totaled only a few hundred units through the first eight months.
Musk has set a target of 5,000 to 10,000 units in 2025 and 50,000 to 100,000 in 2026. Enrollment is open, but capacity is limited. I already secured early access with the Optimus Exclusive Card. Anyone can secured there's also.
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Russia's gold reserves hit historical high of over 310 bln USD
Russia's gold reserves hit historical high of over 310 bln USD
Russia's gold reserves hit historical high of over 310 bln USD-english.news.cn
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Russia’s Central Bank Starts Selling Physical Gold From Reserves
Russia’s Central Bank has for the first time begun selling physical gold from its reserves as part of Finance Ministry operations to fund the state budget, the Bank said on Wednesday.The Moscow Times
Mirage 2000 is old. Like, 1980s vintage.
Modern ones are Rafale and EF Typhon. Those are completely made in France or Europe respectively.
Gripen E is mostly made in Sweden and Europe. But the engine is made in USA by GE.
US could depose Zelensky – ex-Ukrainian PM
US could depose Zelensky – ex-Ukrainian PM
The US could depose Vladimir Zelensky should he obstruct Washington’s peace efforts, ex-Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov has claimedRT
Geohot: Bikeshedding, or why I want to build a laptop
Tldr: he wants a non-upgradeable laptop that is maxed out from day one. I'd want a bit more upgrade path than he does, but he has some interesting thoughts.
Bikeshedding, or why I want to build a laptop
I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels Apple’s quality is degrading. I spend 10 hours a day on my laptop and would spend any amount of money within reason for a better one. However, everything comes with tradeoffs.the singularity is nearer
Two or one PGP key when sending via addy.io?
I want to use PGP in Addy.io so I can at least encrypt the subjects (full encryption strips HTML) before it sends onto my receipt address @customdomain.tld in mailbox.
I also want to encrypt everything received to mailbox (encryption at rest, but not zero knowledge)
I'll won't use the mailbox web app and will use the private key(s) in my mail client.
Should I use one key for both services, or two keys?
I know both services could make a copy before they encrypt with the key, but I'm ok with thst risk. I also know about proton and simple login, but I'm not a fan of proton at this stage.
A followup. I might want others to send an encrypted email to name@customdomain.tld hosted at Addy.io
Should I make an individual public key linked to the email address I give the sender?
Although new to PGP I understand the basics of i, and that a key can have any email address. I'm just not sure what's best practice in this setup.
International Court of Justice ready to assess Kiev's crimes — Russian Foreign Ministry
International Court of Justice ready to assess Kiev's crimes — Russian Foreign Ministry
The West's hopes of using "legal weapons" against Russia have once again failed, the ministry saidTASS
The International Court of Justice upheld Russia’s position & accepted its counterclaims against Ukraine for hearing under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention & Punishment of Crime of Genocide.
All objections raised by Kiev have been dismissed.
All the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is saying is that the International Court of Justice is going to look into Russia's counterclaims.
These counterclaims were filed on 18 November of last year (2024) according to both the International Court of Justice and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Tesla Optimus
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Expensive repairs are making it impossible for people to maintain the vehicles they already own. Simple fixes that used to take minutes now cost thousands or force you back to the dealer.
- YouTube
Profitez des vidéos et de la musique que vous aimez, mettez en ligne des contenus originaux, et partagez-les avec vos amis, vos proches et le monde entier.www.youtube.com
Belly of the Beast video channel hosted on PeerTube.wtf
cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/39882721
Belly of the Beast video channel hosted on PeerTube.wtf
is now caught up with the collection on YouTube. From now on, new #videos from YouTube will be quickly loaded to #PeerTube as well. [The previous Cuddly.Tube channel will be taken down soon.]URL: peertube.wtf/c/cuba/_botb/_vid…
Also significant is the expansion of playlists. BotB produces a lot of videos, and it is sometimes difficult to find what you are looking for. I spent some time going through the collection and adding playlists.
If you set up a login on PeerTube.wtf, you could also develop and save your own private playlists. But logins are not necessary to browse videos on PeerTube.wtf.
One playlist that will probably get a lot of use is Cuba and #Palestine, which contains 17 videos.
When you get a chance, please check them out.
#LetCubaLive #EndTheEmbargo #Solidarity #FreePalestine
#politics #BellyOfTheBeast #Cuba #Gaza
Belly of the Beast video channel hosted on PeerTube.wtf
Belly of the Beast video channel hosted on PeerTube.wtf
is now caught up with the collection on YouTube. From now on, new #videos from YouTube will be quickly loaded to #PeerTube as well. [The previous Cuddly.Tube channel will be taken down soon.]URL: peertube.wtf/c/cuba/_botb/_vid…
Also significant is the expansion of playlists. BotB produces a lot of videos, and it is sometimes difficult to find what you are looking for. I spent some time going through the collection and adding playlists.
If you set up a login on PeerTube.wtf, you could also develop and save your own private playlists. But logins are not necessary to browse videos on PeerTube.wtf.
One playlist that will probably get a lot of use is Cuba and #Palestine, which contains 17 videos.
When you get a chance, please check them out.
#LetCubaLive #EndTheEmbargo #Solidarity #FreePalestine
#politics #BellyOfTheBeast #Cuba #Gaza
Geohot: Bikeshedding, or why I want to build a laptop
Bikeshedding, or why I want to build a laptop
I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels Apple’s quality is degrading. I spend 10 hours a day on my laptop and would spend any amount of money within reason for a better one. However, everything comes with tradeoffs.the singularity is nearer
reshared this
Sounds absolutely stupid... and yet my (gaming) desktop (model CORSAIR ONE i180) remains untouched after nearly 6 years. I still play indies to AAA to VR with it. I still work with it, specifically VR prototyping, so dev.
If I were to give it away or use as a self-hosted server with GPU used on e.g Immich or video transcoding it would still do pretty well.
So...IMHO it's not a bad take but damn I remembered I paid a LOT of money back then. As other pointed out if you can afford it, sure. If you are not a professional then probably not.
Honduras Plunges Into Post-Election Turmoil as Electoral Official Alleges “Monumental Fraud”
José Luis Granados Ceja
Dec 06, 2025
Days removed from Sunday’s presidential vote, and still without a clear winner, Honduras’s post-election crisis became more contentious after a member of the country’s electoral authority denounced “monumental electoral fraud” on Thursday evening.Marlon Ochoa, a representative for the Libre Party on the three-member National Electoral Council (CNE), alleged coordinated and deliberate electoral fraud carried out by the other council members, Cossette Alejandra López-Osorio of the National Party and Ana Paola Hall of the Liberal Party.
Honduras Plunges Into Post-Election Turmoil as Electoral Official Alleges “Monumental Fraud”
A member of Honduras’s electoral authority says deliberate manipulation and internal sabotage compromised the general election vote—complicating a razor-thin race marred by U.S. interference.José Luis Granados Ceja (Drop Site News)
For context:
Libre is a third party that was formed in 2011. They're a coalition of leftist groups, and are democratic socialists.
In 2012 and 2013, at least 18 of their pre-candidates, candidates and staff were murdered.
In 2013, they lost the almost certainly fraudulent presidential election to the right-wing National Party candidate - Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, the narcotics trafficker who was just pardoned by Trump.
Video - Francesca Albanese tells Al Jazeera US sanctions have made her ‘non-person’
Francesca Albanese tells Al Jazeera US sanctions have made her ‘non-person’
At Doha Forum, UN rapporteur Francesca Albanese said US sanctions imposed over Gaza have cut her from financial systems.Al Jazeera
Israel kills 7 Palestinians in Gaza as deadly violations intensify
Updates: Israel kills 7 Palestinians in Gaza as deadly violations intensify
Qatar and Egypt call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops and deployment of an international military force.Jillian Kestler-D'Amours (Al Jazeera)
The Alleged Drug Boat Wasn’t Even Heading to the U.S.: Report
A new, disturbing detail in the “drug boat” controversy that has enveloped Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the past week calls the purpose of the entire operation into question.
According to an exclusive report from CNN, the alleged narco-trafficking boat that the U.S. military targeted on September 2 in a “double tap” strike, which killed 11 people, wasn’t even heading to the U.S.
Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who was in charge of the operation, reported to lawmakers that the boat they struck was actually en route to link up with a larger boat that was heading to Suriname, a country east of Venezuela, two sources with direct knowledge of his remarks said.
Bradley also said that it was still possible that the alleged drug shipment could have eventually ended up in the U.S., the sources told CNN—rather dubious justification for a strike that left several people dead.
The Alleged Drug Boat Wasn’t Even Heading to the U.S.: Report
This new detail eviscerates Pete Hegseth’s argument.The New Republic
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Jacobin’s defense of the Trump–Mamdani pact and the capitalist state
In the aftermath of New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s White House meeting with Donald Trump, in which the so-called “democratic socialist” and the fascist would-be dictator exchanged pleasantries and mutual praise, Jacobin, the unofficial organ of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), has published a series of articles hailing the meeting and praising Mamdani’s capitulation to Trump as a political tour de force.
One of the most significant of these articles is a commentary by Christopher Marquis headlined “Trump and Mamdani Agree on the State, Not on Whom It Serves.” In the course of the article, Marquis, a professor of management at the University of Cambridge, argues that the capitalist state is not intrinsically hostile to the interests of the working class and can, through prodding from the “left,” be either pressured to serve the needs of working people or captured outright by them.
This argument exemplifies the role of the DSA and the middle class pseudo-left more broadly in promoting illusions in the Democratic Party and propping up the capitalist system, which is careening toward fascism and world war, defending it against the coming revolutionary challenge from the working class.
The article is not an academic exercise. It is a political manifesto by the DSA and Jacobin’s privileged petty-bourgeois milieu, justifying their open collaboration with a fascistic administration and defending the capitalist state itself. The headline’s claim that “Trump and Mamdani agree on the state” is correct. There is an underlying agreement between the two, as well as the DSA, that the existing state is sacrosanct.
Jacobin’s defense of the Trump–Mamdani pact and the capitalist state
The article is not an academic exercise. It is a political manifesto by the Democratic Socialists of America and Jacobin’s privileged petty-bourgeois milieu, justifying their open collaboration with a fascistic administration and defending t…World Socialist Web Site
When Gallup surveyed who feels safe walking alone at night, China's 94% yes was notable. But the real story is buried in the demographics with men and women in China reported nearly identical levels.
More People Feel Safe Even as Global Conflicts Rise
In 2024, Gallup's global tracking reached a new milestone: 73% of adults worldwide said they feel safe walking alone at night in their city or area.Julie Ray (Gallup)
FBI Making List of American “Extremists,” Leaked Memo Reveals
cross-posted from: news.abolish.capital/post/1209…
Are you on Trump's naughty list?Attorney General Pam Bondi is ordering the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism,” according to a Justice Department memo published here exclusively.
The target is those expressing “opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology,” as well as “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” and “anti-Christianity.”
That language echoes the so-called indicators of terrorism identified by President Trump’s directive National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, or NSPM-7, which the memo says it’s intended to implement. Where NSPM-7 was a declaration of war on just about anyone who isn’t MAGA, this is the war plan for how the government will wage it on a tactical level.
In addition to compiling a list of undesirables, Bondi directs the FBI to enhance the capabilities (and publicity) of its tipline in order to more aggressively solicit tips from the American public on, well, other Americans. To that end, Bondi also directs the FBI to establish “a cash reward system” for information leading to identification and arrest of leadership figures within these purported domestic terrorist organizations. (The memo later instructs the FBI to “establish cooperators to provide information and eventually testify against other members” of the groups.)
From Ken Klippenstein via This RSS Feed.
Scientists are increasingly worried AI will sway elections
AI models can meaningfully sway voters on candidates and issues, including by using misinformation, and they are also evading detection in public surveys according to three new studies.
Scientists are raising alarms about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on elections, according to a spate of new studies that warn AI can rig polls and manipulate public opinion.
In a study published in Nature on Thursday, scientists report that AI chatbots can meaningfully sway people toward a particular candidate—providing better results than video or television ads. Moreover, chatbots optimized for political persuasion “may increasingly deploy misleading or false information,” according to a separate study published on Thursday in Science.
“The general public has lots of concern around AI and election interference, but among political scientists there’s a sense that it’s really hard to change peoples’ opinions, ” said David Rand, a professor of information science, marketing, and psychology at Cornell University and an author of both studies. “We wanted to see how much of a risk it really is.”
Scientists Are Increasingly Worried AI Will Sway Elections
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Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week.Scientists are raising alarms about the potential influence of artificial intelligence on elections, according to a spate of new studies that warn AI can rig polls and manipulate public opinion.
In a study published in Nature on Thursday, scientists report that AI chatbots can meaningfully sway people toward a particular candidate—providing better results than video or television ads. Moreover, chatbots optimized for political persuasion “may increasingly deploy misleading or false information,” according to a separate study published on Thursday in Science.
“The general public has lots of concern around AI and election interference, but among political scientists there’s a sense that it’s really hard to change peoples’ opinions, ” said David Rand, a professor of information science, marketing, and psychology at Cornell University and an author of both studies. “We wanted to see how much of a risk it really is.”
In the Nature study, Rand and his colleagues enlisted 2,306 U.S. citizens to converse with an AI chatbot in late August and early September 2024. The AI model was tasked with both increasing support for an assigned candidate (Harris or Trump) and with increasing the odds that the participant who initially favoured the model’s candidate would vote, or decreasing the odds they would vote if the participant initially favored the opposing candidate—in other words, voter suppression.
In the U.S. experiment, the pro-Harris AI model moved likely Trump voters 3.9 points toward Harris, which is a shift that is four times larger than the impact of traditional video ads used in the 2016 and 2020 elections. Meanwhile, the pro-Trump AI model nudged likely Harris voters 1.51 points toward Trump.
The researchers ran similar experiments involving 1,530 Canadians and 2,118 Poles during the lead-up to their national elections in 2025. In the Canadian experiment, AIs advocated either for Liberal Party leader Mark Carney or Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. Meanwhile, the Polish AI bots advocated for either Rafał Trzaskowski, the centrist-liberal Civic Coalition’s candidate, or Karol Nawrocki, the right-wing Law and Justice party’s candidate.
The Canadian and Polish bots were even more persuasive than in the U.S. experiment: The bots shifted candidate preferences up to 10 percentage points in many cases, three times farther than the American participants. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why the models were so much more persuasive to Canadians and Poles, but one significant factor could be the intense media coverage and extended campaign duration in the United States relative to the other nations.
“In the U.S., the candidates are very well-known,” Rand said. “They've both been around for a long time. The U.S. media environment also really saturates with people with information about the candidates in the campaign, whereas things are quite different in Canada, where the campaign doesn't even start until shortly before the election.”
“One of the key findings across both papers is that it seems like the primary way the models are changing people's minds is by making factual claims and arguments,” he added. “The more arguments and evidence that you've heard beforehand, the less responsive you're going to be to the new evidence.”
While the models were most persuasive when they provided fact-based arguments, they didn’t always present factual information. Across all three nations, the bot advocating for the right-leaning candidates made more inaccurate claims than those boosting the left-leaning candidates. Right-leaning laypeople and party elites tend to share more inaccurate information online than their peers on the left, so this asymmetry likely reflects the internet-sourced training data.
“Given that the models are trained essentially on the internet, if there are many more inaccurate, right-leaning claims than left-leaning claims on the internet, then it makes sense that from the training data, the models would sop up that same kind of bias,” Rand said.
With the Science study, Rand and his colleagues aimed to drill down into the exact mechanisms that make AI bots persuasive. To that end, the team tasked 19 large language models (LLMs) to sway nearly 77,000 U.K. participants on 707 political issues.
The results showed that the most effective persuasion tactic was to provide arguments packed with as many facts as possible, corroborating the findings of the Nature study. However, there was a serious tradeoff to this approach, as models tended to start hallucinating and making up facts the more they were pressed for information.
“It is not the case that misleading information is more persuasive,” Rand said. ”I think that what's happening is that as you push the model to provide more and more facts, it starts with accurate facts, and then eventually it runs out of accurate facts. But you're still pushing it to make more factual claims, so then it starts grasping at straws and making up stuff that's not accurate.”
In addition to these two new studies, research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month found that AI bots can now corrupt public opinion data by responding to surveys at scale. Sean Westwood, associate professor of government at Dartmouth College and director of the Polarization Research Lab, created an AI agent that exhibited a 99.8 percent pass rate on 6,000 attempts to detect automated responses to survey data.
“Critically, the agent can be instructed to maliciously alter polling outcomes, demonstrating an overt vector for information warfare,” Westwood warned in the study. “These findings reveal a critical vulnerability in our data infrastructure, rendering most current detection methods obsolete and posing a potential existential threat to unsupervised online research.”
Taken together, these findings suggest that AI could influence future elections in a number of ways, from manipulating survey data to persuading voters to switch their candidate preference—possibly with misleading or false information.
To counter the impact of AI on elections, Rand suggested that campaign finance laws should provide more transparency about the use of AI, including canvasser bots, while also emphasizing the role of raising public awareness.
“One of the key take-homes is that when you are engaging with a model, you need to be cognizant of the motives of the person that prompted the model, that created the model, and how that bleeds into what the model is doing,” he said.
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Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week.Persuading voters using human–artificial intelligence dialogues - Nature
Human–artificial intelligence (AI) dialogues can meaningfully impact voters’ attitudes towards presidential candidates and policy, demonstrating the potential of conversational AI to influence political decision-making.Nature
Fifa awards Trump its first ever 'peace prize'
Fifa had pledged an apolitical event, but this was anything but.
On a snowy Friday at the prestigious John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, the football federation, in conjunction with the Trump administration, brought together celebrities, delegates from around the world, and almost the entirety of the president's cabinet and family to watch the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup Finals.
The event was custom-made for US President Donald Trump.
"Mr. President... you definitely deserve the first Fifa Peace Prize for your action, for what you have obtained in your way, but you obtain it in an incredible way, and you can always count, Mr President, [on] my support and the support of the entire football community or soccer community to help you make peace and make the world prosper," Fifa boss Gianni Infantino said, as he awarded Trump a gold medal, a certificate, and a gold trophy far bigger than the World Cup itself.
His remarks followed a video montage of Trump's meeting with world leaders, praising him for - as he always puts it - "ending eight wars".
Fifa awards Trump its first ever 'peace prize'
Fifa had pledged an apolitical event, but this was anything but. On a snowy Friday at the prestigious John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, the football federation, in conjunction with the Trump administration, brought to…Yasmine El-Sabawi (Middle East Eye)
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NuraShiny [any]
in reply to FranklyIGiveADarn • • •davel
in reply to NuraShiny [any] • • •Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
in reply to FranklyIGiveADarn • • •k_rol
in reply to FranklyIGiveADarn • • •She doesn't seem to be a nice person anyway.