> It's really nothing new.

I disagree. What's new is that this flattery is individually, personally targeted. The AI user is given the impression that they're having a back-and-forth conversation with a single trusted friend.

You don't have the same personal experience passively consuming political mass media.

Yes it’s final form of the evolution that social media started.

Village idiot used to be found out because no one in the village shared the same wingnut views.

Partisan media gave you two polls of wingnut views to choose for reinforcement.

Social media allowed all village idiots to find each other and reinforce each others shared wingnut views of which there are 1000s to choose from.

Now with LLMs you can have personalized reinforcement of any newly invented wingnut view on the fly. So can get into very specific self radicalization loops especially for the mentally ill.

Reddit? Or this site? Sort of? Some people voted for my comment, that surely means that I'm right about something, rather than them just liking it, right?