# Personal data can enable targeted election manipulation Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/personal-data-can-enable-targeted-election-manipulation/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy. - Speaker: [Geoffrey Hinton](https://realalpha.app/people/geoffrey-hinton/) · Geoffrey Hinton is a computer scientist and cognitive psychologist. · Nobel-winning pioneer of backpropagation and deep learning, now warning publicly about AI's existential risks. - Host: [Steven Bartlett](https://realalpha.app/people/steven-bartlett/) · Host, The Diary Of A CEO - Show: The Diary Of A CEO - Episode: [Godfather of AI: They Keep Silencing Me But I’m Trying to Warn Them!](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/), Jun 16, 2025 - Moment: 17:18 to 22:16 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/personal-data-can-enable-targeted-election-manipulation/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1038 ## Quote > “Once you know that, it's **very easy to manipulate** them.” > — [Geoffrey Hinton](https://realalpha.app/people/geoffrey-hinton/) at [18:12](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1092) · The Diary Of A CEO ## Takeaways 1. Granular voter data can support messages tailored to individuals. 2. Hinton says targeted messages could discourage people from voting. 3. Engagement-driven feeds reward indignation and deepen echo chambers. ## About this segment Geoffrey Hinton says detailed government records could help craft persuasive messages aimed at individual voters. He links that risk to social feeds optimized for outrage, which can fragment shared reality. From “Godfather of AI: They Keep Silencing Me But I’m Trying to Warn Them!”, Jun 16, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/) ## Transcript Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there. [17:23](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1043) also be worried about the virus spreading to their country. Okay. Then there's corrupting elections. Yeah. So if you wanted to use AI to corrupt elections, a very effective thing is to be able to do targeted political advertisements where you know a lot about the person. So anybody who wants to use AI for corrupting elections would try and get as much data as... they could about everybody in the electorate. With that in mind, it's a bit worrying what Musk is doing at present in the States, going in and insisting on getting access to all these things that were very carefully siloed. The claim is it's to make things more efficient, but it's exactly what you would want if you intended to corrupt the next election. [18:12](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1092) How do you mean? Because you get all this data on the people? You get all this data on people. You know how much they make, you know everything about them. Once you know that, it's very easy to manipulate them. Because you can make an AI that... You can send messages that they'll find very convincing, telling them not to vote, for example. So I have no reason other than common sense to think this, but I wouldn't be surprised if part of the motivation of getting all this data from American government sources is to corrupt elections. [18:44](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1124) Another part might be that it's very nice training data for a big model. But he would have to be taking that data from the government and feeding it into his... Yes. And what they've done is turned off lots of the security controls, got rid of some of the organisation to protect against that. So that's corrupting elections. Okay. Then there's creating these two echo chambers by organisations like YouTube and Facebook, showing people things that will make them indignant. [19:19](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1159) People love to be indignant. Indignant as in angry? What does indignant mean? Feeling I'm sort of angry but feeling righteous. Okay. So, for example, if you were to show me something that said, Trump did this crazy thing, here's a video of Trump doing this completely crazy thing, I would immediately click on it. Yeah. Okay, so putting us in echo chambers and dividing us. Yes, and that's the policy that YouTube and Facebook and others use for deciding what to show you next is causing that. [19:56](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1196) If they had a policy of showing you balanced things, they wouldn't get so many clicks and they wouldn't be able to sell so many advertisements. And so it's basically the profit motive is saying, show them whatever or make them click. And what will make them click is things that are more and more extreme. And that confirm my existing bias. That confirm my existing bias. So you're getting your biases confirmed all the time. [20:19](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1219) Further and further and further and further, which means you're driving away from people. Which is now, in the States, there's two communities that don't hardly talk to each other. I'm not sure people realise that this is actually happening every time they open an app. But if you go on a TikTok or a YouTube or one of these big social networks, the algorithm as you you said is designed to show you more of the things that you had interest in last time so if you just play that out over 10 years it's going to drive you further and further and further into whatever ideology or belief you have and further away from nuance and common sense and um parity which is a pretty remarkable thing i like people don't know it's happening they just open their phones and experience something and think this is the news or the experience everyone [21:01](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1261) else is having. Right. So basically, if you have a newspaper and everybody gets the same newspaper, you get to see all sorts of things you weren't looking for. And you get a sense that if it's in the newspaper, it's an important thing or significant thing. But if you have your own newsfeed, my newsfeed on my iPhone, three quarters of the stories are about AI. And I find it very hard to know if the whole world's talking about AI all the time, or if it's just my newsfeed. [21:30](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1290) okay so driving me into my echo chambers um which is going to continue to divide us further and further i'm actually noticing that the algorithms are becoming even more what's the word tailored and people might go that's great but what it means is they're becoming even more personalized which is means that my reality is becoming even further from your reality yeah it's crazy We don't have a shared reality anymore. [21:54](https://realalpha.app/v/giT0ytynSqg/?t=1314) I share reality with other people who watch the BBC and other BBC News and other people who read The Guardian and other people who read The New York Times. I have almost no shared reality with people who watch Fox News. It's pretty, it's pretty, um, I, I. It's worrisome. Yeah.