Stupid paper #3: Researchers are shocked to discover that chatbots don’t persuade educated people to believe bullsh*t… and wonder if emotionally manipulating them might work better.

The paper, ‘ Effectiveness of chatbots on COVID vaccine confidence and acceptance in Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore’, was published in npj Digital Medicine, a journal within the prestigious Nature stable that is ” dedicated to publishing the highest quality research relevant to all aspects of digital medicine and health”.

And by “digital medicine”, they don’t mean treating your fingers and toes. No sirree, they mean “developing digital solutions for healthcare“. As in, interposing technology between you and a healthcare provider… or replacing that healthcare provider entirely, with a “digital solution”. Well, that would get rid of the pesky Hippocratic Oath/Declaration of Geneva problem, wouldn’t it?

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