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Can historians win the fight against antisemitism and viral misinformation in the age of AI?
Historian Niall Ferguson joins Dan to warn that fact-based historians are losing the battle with social media algorithms that spread false and antisemitic content to increasingly receptive audiences on both the right and left. He argues the rules of the fight have changed. Drawing on a new essay co-authored with AI researcher John-Clark Levin, Ferguson offers data on how algorithms, non-human bots, and AI are transforming how antisemitic ideas go viral, making traditional methods of exposing lies increasingly ineffective. If facts alone are no longer enough, what comes next?
Read The Death of History by Niall Ferguson and John-Clark Levin.
Books by Niall Ferguson including The War of the World and The Square and the Tower.
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In this episode:
- Why Niall Ferguson says his life's work as a historian has failed
- How antisemitism was once pushed to the political fringes, but no longer
- How AI changed the fight against antisemitism
- Why antisemitism is thriving on both the left and the right
- The Nick Fuentes playbook: irony, memes, and virality
- Can liberal democracy survive the age of AI?
- The politics and concerns about a post-Trump generation
- If the old fight is over, what should historians do now?
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Credits: Ilan Benatar, Beth Pearlman, Brittany Cohen, Ava Weiner, Martin Huergo, Mariangeles Burgos, Ryan Lohr and Yuval Semo
