Co-Writing with Opinionated Language Models Affects Users’ Views

If large language models like GPT-3 preferably produce a particular point of view, they may influence people’s opinions on an unknown scale. This study investigates whether a language-model-powered writing assistant that generates some opinions more often than others impacts what users write – and what they think. In an online experiment, we asked participants (N=1,506) to write a post discussing whether social media is good for society. Treatment group participants used a language-model-powered writing assistant configured to argue that social media is good or bad for society. Participants then completed a social media attitude survey, and independent judges (N=500) evaluated the opinions expressed in their…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1901151, CHS 1901151/1901329, 1901329
• SD
  Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes