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How to detoxify and defuse social conversations, using ChatGPT

Mar. 20, 2023.
2 min. read Interactions

AI-based techniques for improving conversation quality and reducing  political divisiveness

About the Writer

Amara Angelica

152.6921 MPXR

Senior Editor Amara Angelica, an electrical engineer and inventor, was previously Editor of Kurzweil AI, working with Ray Kurzweil on The Singularity Is Near and other works

Been on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social networks lately? A toxic zoo, right?  

“More than 100 billion messages are sent every day on Facebook and Instagram alone, and approximately 7 billion conversations occur daily on Facebook Messenger,” say researchers at Brigham Young University and Duke University.

Such conversations can have far-reaching impacts. “Some of the most significant social movements have recently emerged out of sprawling conversations on social media. And discussions between high-profile social media users can shape the stock market, politics, and many other aspects of the human experience.

However, “toxicity in conversations increases polarization and corrodes the capacity of diverse societies to cooperate in solving social problems,” they note. “Nearly half of social media users report observing mean or cruel behavior.” 

Chat assistant as neutral moderator

Now there’s a proposed solution: Reduce divisiveness and improve the quality of conversations, using a large language model, ChatGPT. To test that idea, the researchers conducted a large-scale experiment, choosing the perennial controversial argument: gun control.

Respondents write messages unimpeded until, at predefined intervals, the chat assistant intercepts the treated user’s message, using GPT-3 to propose evidence-based alternative phrasings while retaining the semantic content. (Credit: Brigham Young University and Duke University)

The chat assistant suggests randomly ordered alternatives to the message author: accept or edit any of these rephrasing suggestions, or send their original message. That choice is then sent to their partner, and the conversation continues.

In the research, the chat assistant recommended real-time, context-aware and evidence-based ways to rephrase messages with specific wording during a live, online conversation. esult: improved conversation quality and decreased divisiveness.  

How to reduce toxicity

These suggestions were based on three specific techniques for improving conversations without affecting the content of the message:

Restatement: simply repeating back a person’s main point to demonstrate understanding;

Validation: positively affirming the statement made by the other person without requiring explicit statements of agreement (e.g. “I can see you care a lot about this issue”).

Politeness: modifying the statement to use more civil or less argumentative language. 

In an arXiv paper, the authors report that these techniques improved conversation quality and tone and reduced political divisiveness.

“Our use of AI in this experiment does not seek to change participants’ minds. The research shows that the benefits of such conversations do not require persuasion or agreement between participants on the issues discussed. Each person’s perspective was heard, understood, and respected.“ 

Citation: Argyle, L. P., Busby, E., Gubler, J., Bail, C., Howe, T., Rytting, C., & Wingate, D. (2023). AI Chat Assistants can Improve Conversations about Divisive Topics. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07268

Images: MidJourney, Prompts by Lewis Farrell

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5 Comments

5 thoughts on “How to detoxify and defuse social conversations, using ChatGPT

  1. "How to Have Impossible Conversations" is a great book to read if one wants to learn more about tools, techniques and skills to improve one's own communication, express one's views effectively or learn from other people especially at the moment of disagreement.
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  2. One step further would be to integrate personal digital twins so that it can take into account things such as personality, culture, knowledge, habits etc. and therefore make the message more understandable for the recipient. Many misunderstandings and conflicts arise from the fact that people interpret sentences so differently. It is a nasty problem especially in digital environments when there are no facial expression, gestures, voice tuning and other such supportive information available.
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  3. This paragraph highlights the pervasive issue of toxicity and polarization in social media conversations, and the potential impact it can have on society. However, the proposed solution of using a large language model like ChatGPT as a neutral moderator to improve the quality of conversations and reduce divisiveness is a promising step towards addressing this problem. The experiment on gun control conducted by the researchers serves as a proof of concept and indicates the potential of such models to shape positive change in society.
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  4. This is what Mindplex is all about: human and machine thinking coming together to help each other in creating a better discussion. Should we implement something like this on the Mindplex platform?
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    1. Absolutely
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