Manufactured Consensus: Now Only $4-7 Per Hour! | AA264

That thought leader you follow? A virtual assistant in Manila wrote those posts for $4-7 per hour.

Product Manager Brian Orlando and Enterprise Business Agility Leader Om Patel trace the industrialized pipeline behind LinkedIn's 'thought leadership' industry; from Filipino Virtual Assistants feeding prompts to ChatGPT, to state actors using the same tactics (and sometime the same tools) for influence operations. By the end, you'll see the whole machine.

Listen or Watch as we discuss:
• Why 54% of long-form LinkedIn posts are estimated to be AI-generated
• The Investigative journalism exposing the $4-$7/hour content mills
• How Russian and Chinese influence operations use the same playbook
• Why 'human in the loop' and quality didn't jive with the marketing message
• The spiral of silence: how fake consensus makes real majorities shut up

#LinkedIn #AIContent #MediaLiteracy

Rest of World, Originality AI, OpenAI, Noelle Newman (Spiral of Silence), Big Tobacco 'Doubt is Our Product' campaign, Knight Institute study

LINKS
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@arguingagile
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/362QvYORmtZRKAeTAE57v3
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/agile-podcast/id1568557596

INTRO MUSIC
Toronto Is My Beat
By Whitewolf (Source: https://ccmixter.org/files/whitewolf225/60181)
CC BY 4.0 DEED (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)

Transcript

0:00

the polished thought leader. You follow LinkedIn. In Linkin, you go linkedin and[UH] like it's hobbit hole. Follow. it. The polished thought leader that you've fallen On LinkedIn, in. a virtual assistant in Manila probably wrote those posts and by way on forward to seven dollars hour. That's that's they got paid. do it. So four seven. An hour feeding prompts into chat GBP posting. I know says 30, but posting thirsty comments. At first pass, I. Saw that posing. There's thirsty. Commons. Yeah All in a voice In voice. That's not their own Here's here. part that. want talk about today. Right. So that exact set up cheap human labor plus AI manufacturing posts and fake engagement at scale. from My time. A big improvement manager in defense tech, can tell you That Same recipe. That. China and Russia use to fake public opinion on the. Internet. Same tools, same playbook. only difference is we built that propaganda machine the. First place sell humble brags, and. Then. just kind of left. keys out anyoneanyone to use it. The guy boasting, You're telling me. grateful and humbled, is running. Same software as a Kremlin troll farm. I would, would have preferred if you had said live laugh [UH] love. so welcome. back to Arguing Agile. this is your first time, Welcome. I'm as product manager Brian Orlando. And this is my co-host Enterprise, Business Agility Leader. The baron of the burndown chart, Mr. Om Patel. Oh wow. I've been elevated to be the baron. Now you certainly So If Brian's right, And that, it's all one machine. The whole episode is about following that. Machine up the. Ladder. So what? We're going Show you today is how the machine works, why it turned your feed into trash. And then we're were talking about Joseph. joke Many that many people have pointed out. Is that, it the. people? That are touting that. Yeah, to. You have. move over I think everyone's job today is all this automatically. They're, very, these humans to take the. result of .I. then automaticly produce it, you know, trash on theinternet. So that's funny. And by funny, mean like not ha. Funny. Right. also talk about. happens when we take this, this friendly back -and -forth. mirror, then we'll This friendly,thought leadership. And turn into actual hostile messaging that's meant to, I don't know, erode democracy Oh, the things certainly riled people up. That's sure. Some other things, that's right, so by the. And won't just able spot these fake posts, which most people. do already you'll. able. To see. whole apparatus that. Was hope. All right. So let's kick off. everyone wants shrug it off. So yes, ghost writing is ancient. CEOs always had speech writers. Great leaders alwars. Had speechwriters on. so start where That's, that's first gonna get that as a first. Objection. got Get right out Out our pocket. I don't know where we have it. these real pockets case anyone ever wondered anyway. So we've. To get One. that one right off Table now that supposedly is .I. end end. It's produced en masse but also it. Is built for a slow human Internet. It has become a. Gigantic problem Well, that's right. category that issue the. Category is that. The. Leader. That. You envy or that, you're know, jealous. They have many connections Whatever that. You're comparing yourself to, that's the intent of LinkedIn by showing numbers you've comparisoned to. Like it's It's fake. it was fake before. Now is doubly fake, but now its works. Yeah. so. I. Want show, that was kind the genesis for this podcast here. me, This is a rest world reporting global tech stories. Rest world. org 2026. It's called The Filipino Virtual Assistance Behind LinkedIn's Thought Leaders mill. For seven dollars hour, virtual assistants use [UH] tools to write Link In posts and comment on behalf of Western executives. So know I'm not in wide angle this because looks much better. So there we are. That's the, it's 18 May 20 26. also acceptable to write date. way. Thank very much. 18 May 2026 only where we also would accept the complete opposite twenty-six, may 18th. It's little weirder. like Just numbers. But you. know, so that has been your, this Been your how to Right. write date update brought by the Argue Angel podcast. in. This. oh, it's the. It's The very end the article This is. That dead Internet loop connection Here. Yeah. So a quote Article and they put it real big right here thescreen [UH] toward the. And because it's one Last comments, says it's all yeah. [UH] Comments by fake people. answered with fake. Replies by. They think people, have you. Virtual assistant talk to my virtual assistant. Type thing. Except it's have your virtual. Assistant comment on My Virtual Assistant's posts and like them. And[UH] that's this. Oh, so what happened to human in loop[UH] talked all about that not too long ago. Right? Everybody's talking about. That even today. Oh yeah, it's great. But we need this each idea. What happened? Oh, that's that is who these are? That's who. These virtual assistants, these. They had this mind when they said Human In Loop. Right? think more. The human theloop That is interesting point that I. about because they, they. human. Loop marketing term was undermining the? Autonomy of being everywhere all once not mean you've been able cut headcount. think those two like how to. How actually use eye reality? Like the human loop, i remember, was big during an era of like the35 models where those motors just couldn't, mean, they it on their own. But even then, I mean like not serious things. You know, for anything serious, you would a human loop. it's funny because what's happening is executives go to this service in Manila and the Manila based virtual assistance. That's they're called. They are given a document. written by the. it's probably not even been by, but writ, wrote by. Somebody representing person that they're supposed be portraying online. The persona who's real person, real, know. And and then they just write articles or comment on their behalf. On Internet. they. A presence. This is basically. same like people farming your World Warcraft account. Yeah [UM] In getting you levels. You don't to level yourself. Right, right. I've to. honest and say, until fairly recently, didn't even know that this was going on. Now doubt if this. very recent phenomenon. It's been going. for a. And I. just completely taken, you know, [UH] back by. This because[UH]. I'm anticipate is happening. other funny thing about this, as anybody that's worked software for more than like two years should enough to. Now you can totally tell when people logging in. Because they're like. They're IP addresses there. even using VPNs, do you bounce from VPN in the U.S. to a VPN? In The Philippines. Over and over andover again. post Lin LinkedIn like Linkin doesn't know there's a batter in there. They don't. Know. Absolutely. Come on. Yeah, they totally. No, LinkIn And you. And. Cookies machine. So they. Though who is who. That they're actually different machines. Different. Right [UH] So yeah, LinkedIn does didn't get steel man. Right. Let's do that. There's another source have which is Originality .I Your Originally, original ally. A I. is the a.i. detector website. That's. The purpose of plagiarism checker, that. Kind Mm And I know how I, i really Don't. No. How good their software is? I've not personally used it. But a lot of universities and companies do use their. Software. Penn Purdue, Boston College, .M .C Wal-Mart, you know, AT&T. mean, also they could have just They could. Just painted bunch logos. Sure. Which is Stanford Harvard. Yes. Hilarious. By way, there's doubt they use some aspects it possibly. But yeah. It's like start tell. Right? Yeah. Yeah, mean you're gonna accept studies papers whatnot, You know, In mass. You're going need something like this. Sure So this, this site put out a detector estimate that says fifty four percent of long -form Post on LinkedIn. Are estimated be generated. From what know, a C Lint, I'm not argue with that. If anything, that's probably on the lower side. was gonna say, yeah, probably. Low, right? Yeah, brings us to. Steelman. man, never which, which you heard me in the. Intro already start hedging this deal, man, of like everyone's, everyone uses Goes ghost writer. or just get over This not even a. How does has even? thing? People use Ghostwriters, right? But yeah, it's been going on for And also like outsourcing outsourcing, what and that, that you know, outsource basically editing and writing to Manila like big deal. No problem And also most people that I kNow they would immediately say who cares what garbage post on LinkedIn. It's garbags anyway. Right? whole site garbage. So it's Facebook from whatever, eight years ago whatever was, know. Yeah. Solid steel man. think I, I. Think so. Really? Yeah until you, add on top this [UM] another ,steel man point that didn't. Didn't make it here is that. I. Know for fact because in. early days. podcast, I[UH] ran on. some engagement engagement farms that were all manual because was like in the early days podcasts there was..I. Right Right. mean there. Was but not. There wasn't generative lm's like. We have today and back day, people used to have, like, Slack communities or some message boards, whatever. had when First started podcast where you'd have get accepted. join a community. But when, when you. Joined the. You'd post your latest potcast. And then they, everyone the, You know, made Commitment to. Go like and re -share and, you know, command positively on everybody's content who is there. You build this like, fake engagement rings. cynical practitioner here. Point to say,[UH] I know it's a hey, these fake engagement. Rings have been, they've been around, so like this is nothing new. It's just a technological improvement, Brian. Like get out here. they've Been Around. But think the, The extent to which they're now really being used, maybe that wasn't around back then. Lestaktosom points because the social media algorithm has changed the. Where It shows You engage with. in The platform then starts feeding you what people are engaged with or what. People are. Engaging with, that like. So in. instance, if it's given know, likes shares, then A .I. is pushing up content. The algorithm is. More likely to push to. You because the. Fake engagement. so not only is, are more than 50 percent of posts fake, but the fake material that is floating out there. now most likely to get front of. You. Yeah. Selected targeting, yeah, absolutely, That doesn't even take into account if they're actually sponsoring LinkedIn posts and, know, accelerating reach because people might be willing pay to, To get their message out to. Because with LinkedIn tools, can select demographics, job roles, that kind thing [UM] push messages actual specific targeted people. Yeah. And that's. just LinkedIn. That's not even like meta is very depth where, where allows you to target. But yeah, cheap flooded means trash. That's what meanings. Volume. mean, is the signal. The real signal drops. Real people drop. And it. Means that it's harder for you to actually reach a [UH] person with whatever. type on the platform. Yeah, I think. The flip side that. Might be. It's cheap. do this. So what? right. We'll just throw message out there and see what sticks This fake engagement if the. only way to push past it is to. Spend money. To get it. Then the? Pushback will become. just gotta spend money 's just way platform is [UH] you're not willing Spend money you shouldn't be the. Platform. Yeah, yeah, that. story reminds me of you. Know, authors. They publish their books on. Someme platform like Amazon or whatever. they like. There other authors that. They right? They. Like abuks and vice versa. that's how this thing works. are there takeaways here? Am I shaking my fist the. Idon't know. Stop reading engagement on LinkedIn or really any platform but stop reading. Engagement as proof of anything because you can't tell what's fake. And Linkin not helping either No, it's actually, I'd be bold enough say it's hindering[UH] yeah. So start reading that you know, what yousee online as volume That was manufactured by somebody. would soften that. Say potentially manufactured. That Unless it's these thought leaders. yeah. No, guess. Guess. mind. take.back. If it's thought leader. Never mind [UH] definitely. It's manufactured. You know. Maybe not hundred percent, but is pretty close. though in my like I [UH]I will say in. My and defense tech. I, did quite enjoy reading the comments on posts like. This like, because were out by nment, posted or put. Out by, know, high profile business folks. So I got these comments. Give away very single time. And also, you, we're any of commenters start tracing their posts, You know, especially Twitter. You, find the. It's very quickly. Sure. That's how analysts build networks of inauthentic accounts. They do the leg work. Right praise with zero specifics of. Same, same comments. Similar. Comments like this. There's all seen those right. People say, well said. You know, things like. That's OK. Away. Yeah. And there's no substance. So yeah, I have a take away here. Says, we need. you. Get Back Work. That's right, right. Don't go. LinkedIn to, got. work, find post where every comment says so true and well said. And then Ask yourself, we tell that from real discussion? try. To actually apply this. see it's Real discussion. Yeah. Or or just go have fun Internet for the. Weeker to say, well said to. All us. Right? Exactly. Yeah. I like well said. Comment. Well said on this podcast. If if, you are hilarious looking. yeah, let us now in the. Comment's what? tells our that. You've noticed online to call out fake thought leaders. At taking every bit restraint for me. say leader, by way. We'll be Best response. comments. That's why that's my takeaway. It's. My action. for this podcast. But before Right. hold thing off as [UH] harmless garbage. Oh, that's I'm saying before. You Office Harmless. Garbage, let's look at what's actually holding all this up. There's Punch Line here. Nobody selling. I really wants say loud. and, The, Is like our boy Daddy Dariario who's running around claiming that L.M.'s are replace 90 percent of the people writing code six months ago. That replaced them 12 months. Ago whatever new deadlines gives every six months, three months. whatever. is. We're to strip down. And the .A. is that cheap dumb part [UH][UH] that To drafts the Message That's, that's the, thatsupport. Support. doesn't want to. Say how a lot low does see. Yeah, I is just right and bad first dress. And then the. expensive part of that is The people Manila who pick the. Pull up and then they learn topic, you know, they're learning players. And then. They comment from their run sheet. Right. And they. Actually, pilot the tool and theoretically, they're the. Expensive part, like there, The human judgment part. Yeah. But reality, now we start seeing that the A .I. and People start. That seesaw is going opposite direction. We're. Now that. Anthropic. everybody. starting charge by token. Like don't get. do the, get, use the. The subsidized plans at 20 bucks month or 100 bucks. Whatever. company. You actually have. pay cost, right? Tool. Yeah. Now companies are there. They're actually reading billing and ooh, what this? Right? So yeah, there are. so the machine still. Needs people[UM] who knew. Imagine that I .A. often optimists miss out also like the, the. The hype machine is quietly still using people under hood. That's it's funny. takes people. say, guess at Its funny way where like we always knew it. And it's good See confirmed. But there's no satisfaction or fun I'm not laughing. Just saying no. And I feel sorry for those people that inadvertently get caught in all this. Right. Because just believe what. say. Yeah. In the, in the[UH] The Rest World article there's a quote there that, that they're using different models for this work. And In Rest World article, there is quote. says Robin, thirty nine year old virtual assistant based Manila who has worked for seven agencies, says quote Gemini is better at research but chat GBP sounds more like human rum. Robin feeds prompts Quote, create anoutline for high performing blog post on topic. Insert topic here and Quote. Make sure that structure is interesting, engaging in covers different angles of the .topic that serves our clients. Brand puts chat, GPT, then pours language over LinkedIn. So that's the. Anatomi Of how this done right there. Yeah, will leave article there, think we're steel man now. So that's these citations that we were talking about that. The Gemini better research quote. And then there was another article in Fortune that[UH] Was actually be in. Another podcast but I've decided was. It couldn't hold up on its own where there was Chinese court ruling maybe A month ago two months ago. That companies can't just terminate employees and replace them with AI because .I is not like a development technology. was. Not deemed as a. an appropriate reason to get rid people. Now, this just one court case in one. Court In China. Yeah, but was interesting that how different countries are dealing with the, the law here. Steeleman. So the, if we're going over The steelman, So [UH] guess, guess cynic point. He's going say the, will eventually, it says, finally, the. A I. Will. Eventually. replace And the. End what I would say. Mad English. These tools always get better. [UH] that it's. That kind argument tools. We're getting better every day and also little bit like, you're not prompting hard enough. know, holding right. terrible point. But I get what they're saying [UH]I would say someone who promotes the podcast on social media anduses it uses. And I, in. This very similar way that they're doing here as draft mechanism to write. first drave. So Startwith blank page [UH] as terrible at this. It's absolutely. Yeah. Even all of the. I, what reasoning still leaves it pretty short, right? You know, the academics here virtual assistants are that say it's a transitional scaffolding. Sort Agreeing with the. Seneca is Is Traditional. Scaffolding? do today. Because models are quote not quite there. know, or Know Not enough context had been built. whatever. And then the. The actual day -to -day practitioner, they'll say, this isn't just way that you. This need use this technology Right? Which, is, the what? The. ways I use. it is. They air are. drafts it based on everything knows thecontext you've given it. And then human edits in posts it, that's the. That's just. Yeah, I. Think companies could do well by, you know, putting in mandates like. You cannot just simply copy paste the output of AI without a human actually reviewing [UM] and making sure that it. Stands upright, you know I'm disagree. a company should just give an unfettered access. Your bank devil may care you're credit card. Oh yeah. Go for it. Databases, security. Yeah, just go for. soon be digital Armageddon. Just go. a listen. Do we, we practice what we're preacher or what Here? OK, just go for it. come On Dario. Go For It. low bearing labor here is human judgment. It's not any models. Right? You'd paying these people four to seven dollars hour and[UH] I wouldn't even be. mix. They still would. doing Job. These it as fast. Hard argue against that one because it's pure. That's pure economic play there. It is, it. Is, mean, It's also a, you know, if youget it, You get paid for developing and maybe any these .I. tools. It's a solid play. Look, there's so much faster. Yeah. The interesting thing that the articles just kind shining light on ecosystem that exists. It's not really making any judgments going in and living with these people. trying to figure out. efficiency metrics and, know forty seven dollars versus whatever. And how would be with a A B test? With without A.I. That's not really what's happening here. We're way past that. Yes, there's only B. is no A, There's just assumption. Yeah, that they're better with let's Exactly, yeah. Which is, favorite part product management is. Just while the wild assumptions. And I say I'm trying make easy editing. Right. Because Really want to say wild **** assumptions. But yeah, well, assumptions then[UH] you know, that my bot farm on it So the. The people selling .I. saying you. Now this is going to replace people or these just transitory and eventually we'll past this. They're, I'm sure they're using the same human enabled bot farms.whatever know, A.I. Enabled Human Farm Bot Farms. know. Yeah. this specific instance, perception could reality for whole bunch people that necessarily aren't technical, cetera, which is big part the middle. curve, right? People there are reallyavvy with the technology. They're just follow along. today Yeah. If I'm gonna, if Will I replace this [UH] which is like saying that loud. It's ridiculous because you can't stay. Stop asking, will replace, X, Z and start asking what, what human judgment is hiding inside this. Yeah. Which it's also like the way that I've been communicating that. People, when I When I say out loud. So. Don't sound ridiculous. Right? Because you can't. Say stop trying figure out. Hey, I'll replace this It really is understand your entire workflow and then figure out what pieces workfl that can be accelerated with .I. And that's it. That's all. with. current tools have in the. Condition that, they're in. Yeah. You know who writes prompt. Who had to output? Who? Owns the? Mistakes. got three questions right there That are good questions. start with your workflow Yeah, absolutely So when get back, take one task. Your org calls .I. automated trace. The human still touching that. If can't find them, ask who they are .in your next planning meeting out loud. Yeah, yeah. And also, if you. if. You get stonewalled on that one, you're back and ask. The previous question which says who owns mistakes coming out this. And then you'll get person. Right? That's right. You'll got to. What's from the, what's going Phenix Project Timmy. don't know the. The guy, they couldn't fire the, got it. yeah, Yeah. You'll find your Dave what? Adam. what. name was so comment. The one thing at your company that's been branded A .I. powered secretly. Powered by person and we'll all have good laugh comments. Oh, it's so we can do. but here. where. Laughing Is going stop because that machine that. That built. To automate this manufactured consent. It doesn't care what it's selling. So. What happens when you swap the friendly message for a hostile one or corrosive one? Or one, that's just plain bad. Soh this, this part someone says nobody's actually doing that, Brian. Oh wow. Really? Yeah. What have they been? Somebody's come in oh what doing? that apparatus like cheap humans drafting fake accounts, manufacturing the engagement, you know, saying oh, so brave. You can tell that. I've seen quite few these so brave So courageous. Right? Live, laugh, love. I, need to turn over, you know what? I'd change mind in podcast and I'm I'd save later. I've changed. mind. then. change the bodd guest posting bot, do go and. On anybody it. It's Don't comment on. Our post now when we were On LinkedIn And just put live laugh Are good podcast? Coming Hashtag Live Love We need these for good. Is what I'msaying. That's right so Back my. the apparatus like cheap humans, air drafting, fake accounts. They are manufacturing engagement commenting in amplifying things I'm going take a stand. say it's amoral. That apparatus is amoral because it, it has no opinion about what is. Is amplifying. you. Take out. The. I want sell shoes or I. Want Sell more[UH] accounts Whatever. And then you. Insert like a. Straight lie. Or like. Messaging. That is purely. Evil. Yeah. And it happily go spread that the machine does it. They should just works. Get Machine just. OK, and this. It's not hypothetical because a chat GPT, butwhile ago. I think A couple years ago they publicly caught Russia in China and Iran using these tools to do exactly that. And the end playbook like the, the idea factory behind this. Like big tobacco was using that Late 60s To the. Effective doubt is our product, which we're to. Talk about here in second. Right. boy, don't. Don't come me comments without bringing sources because there's lot of sources. It is not like one or two source. here. There's olot. OK The I'm throw citations here up screen so people can feel free to. My work opening I generate social media comments in multiple languages, makeup names, and bios for fake accounts was used. It was called spam. Flash that's the. sources. So let's check our sources. Oh, come on. this is open eye. This opening eyes. Website Is from August 2024. Like said, Remember this, because was, i was working in defense tech time. Yeah. Disrupting a convert Iranian influence operation. They banned Of accounts of people using Iranians. Using chat GPT for basically inflence operations including .S. presidential campaign. Yeah, that that's. That's one. We've got another one here showing Screen is an NPR article in first open air removes. Influfluence operations tied Russia, China, Israel. This is May 31st, 2024. its the. Same time period of that mid 2024 early mid. Twenty, four but different accounts, more countries. Different accounts. And then here's another one from June of 2025 opening. It takes down covert operations tied China in and other countries. Quote, know. So Chinese propagandists and. Then else there? What other, what other [UH] greatest hits this article? Other countries. Oh, Facebook Web sites. English, Chinean, Urdu. Nice on Tic-Tac X read it and Facebook. Listen like you can even put your spam on. I'm tell now, I don't know you're gonna get hit .I read the worst one. It is definitely so anyway, I, wanted to. throw those there quickly. Get a bunch of. I'm not going. Not gonna, No, link all these in the videos comments because so many. But, did want to. Show a couple of. To prove that this is. Not consolidant. Not conspiracy theories here. Oh, they generated social media comments in multiple languages, made names and bios for fake accounts. To influence different things. were, you know, important To advance whatever agenda they had So so yeah, the playbook itself is very old but the delivery mechanism has become accelerated and to be used on mass scale. citations. And then and then, course, a outline. The Browne Williams Brohnon Wheels in 1969. Doubt is our product because that was the. That was. The marketing campaign to use. To defend cigarettes. When the cigarettes caused cancer. Was becoming thing the 60s. You know A landmark of Mad Men episode that should have been. Yeah. But that's, That's what is. So Steelman here, I expect be fiery and good. What do we have here? We got a twenty 2024 was, was the apocalypse no, no. Apocalypse happened. end world didn't happen 2024. We're still here. That's right. You're it's overblown. Overblown, definitely. Also, so the academic viewpoint here, techno panic, persuasion effects stay very, small. This is not happening or it's, Not bad as. People said would be. Yeah, there was article that we're going to talk about[UH]I know I'll pull talking about. article. Here. That says yes, were. Influence campaigns so those the[UH]And yes were. And know, accounts got banned whatever. They did do things. But they're there. Effects. We're very small. Right? Right. To marginal to like not, know, useful all. consequential, right? We're gonna talk about that second. That the academic that. And and again, was working industry when, these reports all dropped. So that was. The consensus is well there, know, they're just kind spouting stuff and going direct market with the. And nobody really believes anyway. Yeah, know, get no views. Nobody. Really cares. You Know yeah. Except that's not how Google SEO works. Like that. Now however, mean somehow. The automated apparatus. That has been built. To manage and curate human curated content. Human created content, it doesn't matter how fake or not fake. Or you know, people aren't interested whatever. Yeah. Hoover is all up anyway. Correct. So understand you're saying but also like you only know how one little corner works you. We're looking whole picture so yeah, technopatic. Yeah, Get it. Hey, stop panicking Yeah. It's nor it'll be all Ignore it and go back work. Get in there. It's just fire alarm. That's right Yes, it's few bad actors. don't really amount much. Get it, get it. It sounds good. Like this. Let's got will say Of that take. The paper read the. Skeptics were measuring. They're wrong. fight in That. Paper. There's a, there's, a as Paper painter on this. that's saw. I'm not them now because I want to. Get through this quickly. They were looking at attempts. influence voting in. And swing democracies around world, they weren't looking authoritarian states. were look, like monarchies and. Like that Most the Campaigns were like low effort Campaign's direct from there. I tool directly out on the. Internet without any intervention. Yeah. Without likes smart people that know culture and really understand language stuff like. And not disciplined humans loop. In the. Middle. certainly wasn't like that. The Russians who are very smart this. they're, and quite honestly, they means they. Up or hilarious. Like some their bot memes are. Very And can tell got people loop because they're like there like. They're that. That that Russian sense Yeah, yeah. Pretty funny you. You have any Russian. Friends there, funThey're hilarious people But definitely not. That is low. Low effort garbage. know, right? China's big on lower effort. Garbage, Yeah. But other hand. Like even now you've got entire podcast networks that we talked about a previous episode, We talk. About that. Quiet, pleasePlease network that had like thousands of podcasts and they actually were getting tons Tons, Tons Use them. So they're yeah, here's a is a, six months ago. a hundred seventy five thousand generated podcast episodes on platforms like Spotify Apple. Thanks Insection Point A .I. which is actually other company. believe Quiet Please Network. Right It's eight employees cranking out 3000 episodes week covering everything from localized weather reports, pollen trackers, too detailed account of assassination biographies, et cetera, etcetera. So there's a ton of. Stuff on here and And I, I'm not gonna into this article because the point Highlight. This particular actor, though the. Point that I wanted. bring this. up was there, it's not like there's one or two these, a, That got consumed by people. It's a lot, Yeah, know. got consumed by people. Right. knew know, lots Of people are listening reading everything Yes, you might think that it's low effort sorry that. The Knight Institute was I'll just keep a study. That we talking about before. Yeah. You might. Think that's a. effort, yes. But also like there's so much of Like real podcast. Real people having conversation. know can break through that. So It's. Yeah. That's what it. Does. To someone legitimately trying to. Learn or understand topic when the zone is being flooded. I know. these campaigns not, they don't really move the. You Know. Like I understand why someone would. Say that because you're. Not a hardened conservative or harry and liberal. whatever. To change their position. Sure. But most time, voting is now about getting the. The Harden It's the. Right, it's mobilizing people that either otherwise wouldn't vope, who don't have it's, know, this super strong opinions. And need ton of those people. come out. You know, you. Just need. Enough. Yeah, yeah. Know and also like the voting America it's laughable Less than 30 percent People vote. So you? Could mobilize, if'd like whip up rage and get people to vote, You know more fully, raised percentage. Then, yeah. Youcan youcan swing electors. Now that the point their report was no these campaigns have been good doing something like that. That's probably true I think going forward though, that may change. Yeah. know, because the, these, A .I. tools getting better and better. They're the worst they've ever been today. the. The. These tools. Are used in other countries to magnify state propaganda. For sure like internal and external. know, so the China, example, uses these tools to, to do take pro-China messages. And push them out theworld, but also in their reverse. To drown out. Do Yeah, Drown on any kind messaging that could, could paint government as a, you know, bad light internally And they're very effective that. know, so the machine is the. Machine that's been built here is. Topic agnostic by design. So remember that it doesn't care Messa direct quote from someone or lie And none of it, and no other social media platforms carry either. Yeah, that's the. Because they don't have any sociable responsibility to public. so I think from this one, you can stop asking if post is true and start asking. What? The machine behind it is. Built to. Do. Right.. Which completely different consideration than looking at whatever. is. That's fact fiction. right. so, built the consensus? What is the. Consensus trying to sell you, which is. Another one that I Talk about on future podcast. Is that. In. product managementement space it's. It's bad out there, kids. there's so many people that. The end the. We're not even and is. A funnel into a consulting program or buy my book or, you know, said My class. whatever It's what? Yeah, because the whole point this been to sprinkle in some value that got. Some from, not the books podcasts. listen to and then get you sailing through the. Well, me hundred twenty five dollars [UH] guess so. Yeah. can teach you how Had to a prompt. Right You Know hold and hold right or whatever. Like it's. It's tough. And then you. who pays if I. Believe this thing would be last question, which in that case, I'd just outline you. You pay don't realize you're paying, maybe banger of left pocket right packet. But it's you,that's paying. You're paying of somewhere. So when youget back take one, everybody agrees. Claiming field. you. Ask Out loud. In meeting. Who profits if we all believe this And oh boy, when you do that, then you'd better get your torches and pitchforks right because people might think that you're talking crazy. Oh yeah definitely. So sit at the long end the. That's right. All right, so let's debate in comments is, is the, it's overblown crowd, right? That this stuff mostly flops or they measuring the wrong thing? So pick sign and defend it. OK, because here's that thing about flops It doesn't have convince you. Okay, you just Look like the majority. And that is where things get dangerous. machine that mostly, quote, fails to persuade according to, coding, old Internet. Why should. That still scare you, you know, because persuasion isn't point. Right? Right It's, it's those messages don't need to change minds. They need. To fake a majority, that is it. They only need. fake. majority, so people read room before they speak. It's called these spiral of silence. And when the. Room looks one sided. The real you know, majority shuts up. Exactly. Yeah. we've all seen this. Real life too. I'm sure. Right. In certain meetings where you have some polished people that know exactly how to tone the narrative. chine that is, is cheap. It's immoral and it is. Aimable. so now, we've made More importantly, it's not word, but its, its amiable. Okay, you can point at any person, anyplace and idea. Any ideology, let me get me. Get real dangerous here in conspiracies territory here. Right. You're. Going to? Run it? The same time that we've slowly consolidated Legacy media apparatuses. are legacy media. And maybe it's different in other countries. I don't think is. The actual. I. It's probably the same thing happening. Yeah. But the, the. Legacy media. Let's have all been slowly consolidating. have, We've got here that, the. Media consolidation trend 1983, 90 percent of American media was owned by 50 media. Companies. By 2012. That number. Was six. And think there's less today media combinies. Yeah, yeah. Certainly the Western hemisphere. There's the, The spiral silence that Noel Newman is a, it's a documented effect that people can read about they want. Those the citations. They come out this section. But from the. Bottom, you have this grassroots organic spread of ideas that theoretically, the. Ideas are spreading.,kind that becomes this status quo over time. And from top down The media [UM] Pushes what the. Pushes. So now. with. Abilities to spend money. deploy these bot farms. drown out. What everybody says via social media platforms. For the. Low price of four. dollars hour PhilippinesAnd with the. Ability to. Directly control these media apparatuses through, know direct purchase. I guess. Yeah. They are just and monopolizing their content. So this is a double whammy. Right? If ever I saw not like on both sides. so Idon't don't know. It's a. No essential. Governmental. Oversight. Or adult Although megaphone oversight, to be honest. So I want to, of saying that you shouldn't really need opinion with all these factors. That we're kinda laying out to. To judge whether not the these, these things are dangerous for democracies. It's, yeah think unfortunately everybody falls into one of two camps. Right? People that have their eyes wide open. just listen to stuff with their. Oh, reference. And you can't Nikola Kim. won't let us listen. right like I thought youwere going an Eyes Wide Shut straight into this is just discus consolidation panic. is, this. As old radio is. Oh, it's like this. Just old panic. You're panicking over nothing. Right? Right, right. So you know I'm not that old, but can remember my dad talking about the messaging on radio way back before TV. Right. Because he was old [UM] Petit News telling you everything's fine when we're actually losing war. That's So this is old for sure. Right now it's the, Worst thing is, right not. It's hard to tell. The wheat from the chef unless are really savvy. So you're not questioning and simply just taking things at face value. hmm. God help you. Yeah You know, the. a person is generally, old George, George Carlin, like a, yeah, person. smart. are. That's right. Sheeple the sheeple. know most part. People aren't cheap. They'll be not discover as they learn Not that's garbage. And you. Know, one from work this industry that China analysts used. say. Is most like the. The difference between America China. much a typical Chinese citizen knows that. what they're being broadcasted at, you. Know, It's all fake. They It's know it's fake, right Typical American does not. That is very true. Sadly. that is. True. this whole episode of him wanting to say what, what this. To do with agile. Oh, so you're up Sure So those the, though the steel man takes. Let's, talk about or sense. this. the harm here is everyone thinks that this manufactured opinion is a consensus. then nobody speaks up. That's harm which you wish everybody listened Spock as he's worked on development teams, has seen this before. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Everyone has. railroaded befor by the executive saying oh, hear silence. means everyone agrees, which we've talked about other podcasts. Sure. Yeah. You know that. And that's this. But at mass scale, very dangerous. Extremely flooding is dangerous when [UH] When not like when, there's, know, in Low trust environment, I would say flooding dangerous in A low trust truss environment, Which know, which is, Which is. Nobody knows what to believe for different reasons. People don't Know what. truth is? Spain doctors are very good at, know, disguising. Right or being very. Economical with the truth. Yeah. So mean, it's super dangerous condition of a. Consolidated microphone from Top fortom you know, all saying. thing. Very dangerous. The only law on. Books that we. Found in researching here. There's couple countries have laws that says that. A chat bot has to declare itself as it. But don't think America one of. Think maybe California. Yeah. As law about this Europe has, you know, sost European countries now are going that way. was single digit. Now maybe Australia. remember. was. digit number countries. Yeah. was. Yeah [UH] But nothing governs this faking of crowd. know, it's this. Faking crab behavior Yeah. unfortunately, Know those people that don't want have this overt regulation will say caveat important. Right. But doesn't really work that. for [UH] mass. So the only thing youcan do here is, mean, it's one the. Things you. do. Here stop waiting for regulators come around and. start analyzing. The consensus that. think exists that's being projected at you? Everybody's moving .I. If you're not on a. You're gonna be left behind. Start analyzing these, these consensus messages. Everyone believes that, You know, and ask, hey, this a real majority that exists? Like AI thing is, if you're not tech. The A think it's like easy miss. There's a, therea lot buzz and nothing's really happening. Right? Right. when something seems like, it's true. ask yourself question who benefits from this. Really? Yeah. Who profits? I say profits better way to it. Yes. Profits, know, and the one is, am i staying silent? I'm not weighing here because feel outnumbered. Right? feel, know, feeling empowered and emboldened to say something. But also, are really on number like if the comments, it's live, laugh, love over and. again. Like I. You know, wait comment. It's get there. Get Definitely, I'll Some down votes on Reddit. And I, don't care I 'ld take That's, pick Topic where you. Think, quote everyone disagrees with is good one for the Comments. Let let us know topic. Or We're, quote, everyone disagree. Let me note what hill you're willing die on. That's right in the. Comments because you Know, if you, can't talk about you're real. View's I don't, What kind world we're living in over here? Yeah. You're being compressed. That's The Spiral from the. Noelle Newman research over here. Synthetic consensus triggers silence. This, this is basically what thatthat whole citation comes from. And because it's Hardest thing do is express your real opinion, especially in, you, Know corporate America. Doesn't, doesn't listen. Does You gotideas? Give Let down in comments yourself, Kim. Okay, though should anyone regulate this manufactured online consensus or is a cure worse than the disease? That would be the. Question. know, that's Fantastic question. Yeah, absolutely. We'd love to hear from you though on what your thoughts are around this. Maybe you, you. Know program but say something on your. Some. That's right. It's. Tell us it's what's. What's? one everyone agrees claim in. Your industry that you. suspect maybe manufacturing consensus. Yeah, it's one machine. So don't quiet yet. And it also live, laugh, love. That should a the title podcast. Maybe. All right. know comments below what other topics you'd like. delve into. And while you're there, I can subscribe. So true