There’s a study in science that should have got way more attention than it did.

It describes a new kind of bot swarm. Not the dumb copy paste accounts you can spot in a second but fleets of AI personas that hold a consistent backstory, remember past conversations, and coordinate with each other in real time. They secretly infiltrate communities, build credibility over weeks and then start nudging conversation.
The goal isn’t to spread one fake story but to manufacture consensus. The illusion that everyone already agrees on something, so you fall in line without realising you were pushed.
The researchers say these swarms probe an audience with dozens of message variants, measure what lands and then amplify the winner. A/B testing your beliefs basically at machine speed.
Last year they estimated 1 in 5 accounts in online conversations are already automated. The US took down a Russia linked AI bot farm running almost 1000 fake American accounts back in 2024. That was the early clumsy version.
Next time you watch an opinion go from fringe to “everyone thinks this” in a week, it’s worth asking who actually moved and whether any of them were real.