This is my opinion, as well:

- elites already engage in mass persuasion, from media consensus to astroturfed thinktanks to controlling grants in academia

- total information capacity is capped, ie, people only have so much time and interest

- AI massively lowers the cost of content, allowing more people to produce it

Therefore, AI is likely to displace mass persuasion from current elites — particularly given public antipathy and the ability of AI to, eg, rapidly respond across the full spectrum to existing influence networks.

In much the same way podcasters displaced traditional mass media pundits.