Lean, Mean, Righting Machine

“Michael Protzman, a former Seattle demolition contractor, attracted a following of QAnon conspiracy believers so devoted to his prophecies that hundreds of them traveled to Dallas on Nov. 1, 2021, to witness John F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. appear on a grassy knoll adjacent to the assassination site of JFK … When the deceased Kennedys failed to show, Protzman’s supporters followed him to a nearby Rolling Stones concert, where he predicted that Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Steve Jordan would remove their masks and reveal their true identities: JFK, Michael Jackson and Prince, respectively. When the unmasking didn’t occur, many members of the group waited around in Dallas for months, raising money from online supporters to pay their bills at the Hyatt Regency.” It seems that conspiracy theories are easy to sell and extremely difficult to dislodge. Could an AI bot help? Annie Duke in WaPo (Gift Article): Finally, something is puncturing conspiracy theories. “When someone takes an extreme position, they’re increasing the distance between themselves and the pack. That distance makes the position more integral to identity, a part of the way that a person defines themself as distinct from other people. Once a belief is integral to identity, it sticks.” (This is what makes it so hard for another person to break the spell. Can a machine do the job? And if so, couldn’t conspiracy theorists just create a myth about machines?)