Fact◆Article
AI systems are more persuasive in text conversations than even elite, well-prepared, financially incentivized human debaters.
A large four-study experiment (18,978 conversations, 6,923 people) found frontier AI models reliably out-persuaded expert human debaters, even ones who prepared extensively and were paid cash bonuses to perform well. ✦ AI generated
Kobi Hackenburg and coauthors · Import AI · 2026-06-22 · original ↗
AI systems were reliably more persuasive than expert humans, even when expert humans chose their issues, researched in advance, underwent hours of live, structured practice, and were incentivized with £1,000 cash bonuses
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- ·AI systems reliably out-persuaded expert human debaters
- ·Experts chose their own issues and topics
- ·Experts researched extensively before conversations
- ·Experts got hours of live, structured practice
- ·Experts paid £1,000 cash bonuses to perform well
- ·AI still won more often despite incentives
- ·Findings drawn from four large-scale studies
- ·18,978 conversations across 6,923 people tested
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