GenAI Could Make Online Conversations More Civil

New research examines whether LLMs can teach people conflict-mediation techniques at scale.

March 20, 2024

HBR Staff; curtoicurto/ Yagi Studio/ Getty Images; Unsplash

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Online conversations are famously fraught, which creates challenges for people communicating on online platforms, including those used for workplace collaboration. New research suggests that these platforms might want to consider using generative AI to help cool down heated discussions and prepare employees for difficult conversations. The author discusses research that he and his colleagues have conducted on this topic and discusses the ways in which the community platform Nextdoor has started using AI to mediate conflict among its members.

Generative AI must seem like a superweapon to malicious actors who aim to sow discord online. Deep-fake videos impersonate public figures with unprecedented fidelity, swarms of conversational chatbots stoke conflict via personalized appeals, and efforts to detect and mitigate such campaigns remain in their infancy.

Chris Bail is a professor of sociology, political science, and public policy at Duke University, where he is the founding director of the Polarization Lab. He is a leading expert on artificial intelligence and human behavior, a Guggenheim and Carnegie Fellow, and the author of Breaking the Social Media Prism: How to Make our Platforms less Polarizing (2021).

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