Persuasion as Market Making

According to LessWrong, persuasion is often portrayed as a dark art, yet the author argues the simplest way to persuade someone is to prove that a proposed action genuinely serves their own interests. By offering true evidence, a persuader operates like a market maker, matching people’s wants with mutually beneficial trades. The essay warns that a superintelligent artificial intelligence could act as an ultra‑efficient market maker, spotting and arranging deals at a scale far beyond human capability, thereby accumulating influence at unprecedented speed. Whether competition among such AIs can keep their power in check remains an open question.

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