Generative AI could help climate sceptics engage with real climate science

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-10-13 20:00

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Dutch and French researchers have figured out a way to help climate sceptics engage with climate science - with the help of generative AI. They say the AI can subtly modify headlines to reduce anticipated disagreement, regret and negative feelings towards the issues, all while keeping the factual integrity. They found these modified headlines from AIs led to more people bookmarking and upvoting climate stories, and were strongest among the most sceptical participants. Additionally, they found the participants that engaged with climate science as a result of their AI intervention showed a shift in their beliefs towards the scientific consensus.

Journal/
conference: Nature Climate Change

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Funder: J.F.B. acknowledges support from grant nos. ANR-23-IACL-0002, ANR-17-EURE-0010 and ANR-22-CE26-0014-01 and the research foundation TSE-Partnership. We gratefully acknowledge the help of Iyad Rahwan at the Center of Humans and Machines, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, for obtaining funding for data collection.

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