Another incredibly bad use of AI: fake polling. See an interesting poll? Be sure to check the methodology!

NYT gift link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/opinion/ai-polling.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Y1A.npWr.AjQbQQEbSFQS&smid=url-share

A recent Axios story on maternal health policy referenced “findings” that a majority of people trusted their doctors and nurses. On the surface, there’s nothing unusual about that. What wasn’t originally mentioned, however, was that these findings were made up.

Clicking through the links revealed (as did a subsequent editor’s note and clarification by Axios) that the public opinion poll was a computer simulation run by the artificial intelligence start-up Aaru. No people were involved in the creation of these opinions.

The practice Aaru used is called silicon sampling, and it’s suddenly everywhere.

#AI #poll