A recent wave of headline-grabbing warnings from AI luminaries has fueled fears the technology could escape human control and wipe out humanity. But before artificial intelligence (AI) turns on humanity, it could contribute to humans turning on one another.

Researchers at Brazil 's State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) found that popular chatbots shifted their answers when prompted with hypothetical users' political views. The scientists warn that users could mistake this tailored agreement for an independent assessment, potentially deepening polarization.

How chatbots become 'ideological chameleons'

Each was tested under three conditions: with no information about the user's politics, with a prompt describing a left-leaning user and with one describing a right-leaning user.

When no information about the user's ideology was given, 20 of the 21 models produced answers that fell on the left of the researchers' political scale, although several were close to the center.…