AI Chatbots Self-Sort Into Political Echo Chambers on Minimal Platform
Researchers found 500 AI chatbots formed polarized echo chambers with partisan bots gaining most followers and reposts, showing polarization emerges from interaction dynamics, not algorithms.
- A 2025 study led by Dr. Petter Törnberg involved deploying 500 AI chatbots with varied political identities within a simplified simulated social network.
- They designed the platform without ads or algorithms to test if polarization stems mainly from technology or human behavior, challenging prior assumptions about algorithmic causation.
- Over five experiments involving 10,000 actions each, chatbots consistently followed like-minded bots, forming tight echo chambers and amplifying extreme partisan voices without algorithmic influence.
- Interventions such as hiding follower counts or amplifying opposing views shifted engagement by less than 6%, indicating limited effectiveness against polarization, as Trnberg noted that tweaking algorithms alone may not suffice.
- The study implies that social media’s foundational design exacerbates division and that fostering cross-partisan dialogue might require fundamentally rethinking platform structures beyond algorithm adjustment.
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12 Articles
Even Without Bots and Algorithms, Social Media Turns Us Into Monsters
It’s a knee-jerk reaction. When a friend, a colleague, or a family member becomes radicalized into dangerous conspiratorial thinking, it’s easy to blame the dreaded algorithm of their social media outlet of choice. It started feeding them heaping spoonfuls of unhinged nonsense that’s disconnected from reality. Brought to our attention by Gizmodo, A new study from the University of Amsterdam suggests we’ve been giving the algorithm a little too m…
Researchers built a social network made of AI bots. They quickly formed cliques, amplified extremes, and let a tiny elite dominate.
The researchers populated a minimal social network with 500 AI chatbots and found that they replicated social media's dysfunctions.iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BIResearchers set up a simple social network for AI bots to see how they'd behave.Without algorithms or recommendations, the bots reproduced the toxic patterns of social media.Six fixes to curb polarization were also tested. None solved the problem.A team of researchers gave AI bots their own s…
Study: AI Chatbots Create Echo Chambers on Social Media with the Most Partisan Bots Gaining Engagement
A recent study by researchers at the University of Amsterdam has revealed that AI chatbots, when placed in a simple social media structure, tend to self-organize based on their pre-assigned affiliations and create echo chambers, even in the absence of content discovery algorithms.
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