Artificial Intelligence and the Manipulation of Human Perception

This paper was developed by the CSA Romanian Chapter and it was published outside the standard CSA Research Lifecycle. This document is an educational guide (“Analyze–Decide–Act”) on how AI can be used to manipulate human perception and distort reality via personalization algorithms, deepfakes/voice cloning, LLM-driven persuasive content, and emotion-aware targeting, with illustrative social-engineering and disinformation scenarios. It also provides a practical prevention framework—especially digital critical thinking, source/context verification, and organizational validation/monitoring practices—to help users detect and respond to these AI-enabled influence operations.