Advances in AI offer the prospect of manipulating beliefs and behaviors on a population-wide level. Large language models and autonomous agents now let influence campaigns reach unprecedented scale and precision. Generative tools can expand propaganda output without sacrificing credibility and inexpensively create falsehoods that are rated as more human-like than those written by humans. Techniques meant to refine AI reasoning, such as chain-of-thought prompting, can just as effectively be used to generate more convincing falsehoods. Enabled by these capabilities, a disruptive threat is emerging: swarms of collaborative, malicious AI agents. Fusing LLM reasoning with multi-agent architectures, these systems are capable of coordinating autonomously, infiltrating communities, and fabricating consensus efficiently. By adaptively mimicking human social dynamics, they threaten democracy. Because the resulting harms stem from design, commercial incentives, and governance, we prioritize interventions at multiple leverage points, focusing on pragmatic mechanisms over voluntary compliance.

翻译：人工智能的进步为在群体层面操纵信念与行为提供了可能。大型语言模型与自主智能体使影响力活动达到了前所未有的规模与精度。生成式工具可在不牺牲可信度的前提下扩大宣传产出，并低成本地制造出比人类撰写内容更具人性化特征的虚假信息。旨在优化AI推理的技术（如思维链提示）同样可被用于生成更具说服力的谎言。在这些能力的加持下，一种颠覆性威胁正在浮现：协同作恶的AI智能体集群。这些系统融合了LLM推理与多智能体架构，能够自主协调行动、渗透社群并高效制造虚假共识。通过自适应地模仿人类社会动态，它们对民主制度构成威胁。鉴于其危害源于设计缺陷、商业激励与治理缺失，我们主张在多个关键节点实施干预，重点关注务实机制而非自愿合规。