AI always answers the same too, if the inputs are the same. The trick is to use a hidden input that keeps changing, like the current time, and you can do the same with any algorithm.
AI is just a really advanced algorithm. (Or sometimes not so advanced, if you include types of AI that aren’t LLMs.)
Also, AI is behind almost all algorithmic content delivery. You can just google it and find articles like How AI Influences What You See on Facebook and Instagram. Every closed-source platform is using it, except maybe reddit, but that’s only because they have a ton of technical debt that makes it difficult for them to change core systems.
Of course it’s true that AI is “just” a tool, but it’s a tool that makes it a lot easier to manipulate people, and it’s already a huge problem.
Your second paragraph is severely understated. It completely invalidates your first paragraph.
In the USA there are 4 corporations that own pretty much all TV news, whether it’s local or not. Add another 2 corporations to cover almost everything else on TV.
Online news is a little more diverse, but it’s heading in the same direction.
And the government won’t break up those corporations because they’re too big for that to be possible. It’s too late. Whether the corporations use regulatory capture or just a massive team of lawyers to make antitrust lawsuits prohibitively expensive, they simply can’t be broken up.