[Submitted on 24 Apr 2026 (v1), last revised 8 Oct 2026 (this version, v3)]
Abstract:Hundreds of millions of people use AI for writing assistance. We asked how AI distorts perceptions of AI users and their opinions. Writers (N=2,939) wrote political opinion paragraphs with and without AI assistance. Separate readers (N=11,091) blindly evaluated these paragraphs and made inferences about the writers. With AI, writers seemed more opinionated, competent, positive, and demographically privileged. Writers objected to many of these distortions yet preferred AI-assisted text even when made aware of them. Reward models trained on our data mitigated objectionable distortions but reduced user acceptance. Additional readers (N=8,798) trusted AI-assisted writers more and were more persuaded by AI writing when AI was more distortive. Overall, distortions from AI writing assistance are pervasive, persistent under human oversight, and likely to have consequential effects on human behaviours and attitudes.
Submission history
From: Paul Röttger [view email]
[v1] Fri, 24 Apr 2026 12:31:11 UTC (1,354 KB)
[v2] Mon, 29 Jun 2026 11:51:27 UTC (1,436 KB)
[v3] Thu, 8 Oct 2026 19:19:51 UTC (3,683 KB)