CARLSBAD — A Carlsbad City Councilman has launched a new initiative to examine how rapidly advancing artificial intelligence tools will be used to influence and potentially manipulate elected officials and high-level decision-makers.
Kevin Shin, who is in his first term, launched the Pinocchio Project this week, describing it as an independent effort focused on understanding how AI systems can analyze human behavior, refine persuasive messaging and scale influence in ways that were once limited to intelligence agencies or specialized psychological operations (psyops).
The project is not sponsored, funded, or staffed by the city of Carlsbad, he said, but grew out of his experience working with AI tools and observing how rapidly the technology is evolving. Shin, a former Marine and defense contractor in communications and global positioning systems (GPS), drew on those experiences to help develop the project.
“I’m just going to tell people I’m doing this and I’m showing you step-by-step,” Shin said of his transparency-first mindset for the project. “I feel like if you can see the journey through the eyes of a local elected, it’s still close enough to realize that this can happen to you. If you’re C-Suite, it’s going to be on a different level. It’s not on the political level, it’s on the enterprise level.”
The Pinocchio Project comes as lawmakers nationwide grapple with the implications of AI…..
