Generative AI impacts how people seek and trust information
Investigating the Impacts of Generative AI on Information Seeking
Human-Computer InteractionArtificial IntelligenceComputers and Society
Summary
It can be hard to know when to trust answers from AI chatbots. The authors studied how these AI systems use language that sounds smart or expert to shape how people trust them. They discuss how this changes the way people look for and judge information. The paper also aims to help different fields talk about the risks and effects of using AI as information sources.
What this means in practice
- •For user experience teams: Design interfaces for AI chatbots that clearly communicate their expertise and reliability to improve user trust in information retrieval.
- •For content moderation teams: Develop guidelines to identify and mitigate risks related to users overtrusting generative AI outputs based on procedural cues of authority.
A position paper. It proposes an approach and reports no results.
Authors
Alexi Orchard, Shannon Lodoen
Abstract
This paper is an encore submission of our 2026 journal article "Expertise and Information Seeking in the Age of Generative AI: New Procedures, New Problematics" with an extended discussion for the CSCW 2026 "Broader Impacts of GenAI in Communication" Workshop on October 10, 2026. In the original article, we employ procedural rhetoric to analyze how generative AI chatbots leverage natural language signifiers of expertise and intelligence to influence users' perception of their trustworthiness. In this submission, we extend our conversation in the CSCW community with the goal of cultivating a cross-disciplinary vocabulary for describing, analyzing, and mitigating the risks posed by the integration of generative AI into human communication practices. It is important to develop an understanding of how the procedures surrounding information-seeking practices are informed by users' values, experiences, and expectations - and how these procedures might in future be altered by the emerging turn toward AI "experts" and authority.