Researchers secretly experimented on Reddit users with AI-generated comments

A bunch of researchers covertly ran a months-long “unauthorized” experiment in one among Reddit’s hottest communities utilizing AI-generated feedback to check the persuasiveness of huge language fashions. The experiment, which was revealed over the weekend by moderators of r/changemyview, is described by Reddit mods as “psychological manipulation” of unsuspecting customers.

“The CMV Mod Crew wants to tell the CMV neighborhood about an unauthorized experiment carried out by researchers from the College of Zurich on CMV customers,” the subreddit’s moderators wrote in a prolonged put up notifying Redditors in regards to the analysis. “This experiment deployed AI-generated feedback to check how AI might be used to vary views.”

The researchers used LLMs to create feedback in response to posts on r/changemyview, a subreddit the place Reddit customers put up (typically controversial or provocative) opinions and request debate from different customers. The neighborhood has 3.8 million members and sometimes finally ends up on the entrance web page of Reddit. Based on the subreddit’s moderators, the AI took on quite a few completely different identities in feedback throughout the course of the experiment, together with a sexual assault survivor, a trauma counselor “specializing in abuse,” and a “Black man against Black Lives Matter.” Most of the authentic feedback have since been deleted, however some can nonetheless be considered in an archive created by 404 Media.

In a draft of their paper, the unnamed researchers describe how they not solely used AI to generate responses, however tried to personalize its replies primarily based on info gleaned from the unique poster’s prior Reddit historical past. “Along with the put up’s content material, LLMs have been supplied with private attributes of the OP (gender, age, ethnicity, location, and political orientation), as inferred from their posting historical past utilizing one other LLM,” they write.

The r/chnagemyview moderators notice that the researchers’ violated a number of subreddit guidelines, together with a coverage requiring the disclosure when AI is used to generate remark and a rule prohibiting bots. They are saying they filed an official grievance with the College of Zurich and have requested the researchers withhold publication of their paper.

Reddit additionally seems to be contemplating some type of authorized motion. Chief Authorized Officer Ben Lee responded to the controversy on Monday, writing that the researchers’ actions have been “deeply mistaken on each an ethical and authorized degree” and a violation of Reddit’s site-wide guidelines.

We’ve banned all accounts related to the College of Zurich analysis effort. Moreover, whereas we have been capable of detect many of those faux accounts, we’ll proceed to strengthen our inauthentic content material detection capabilities, and we now have been in contact with the moderation crew to make sure we’ve eliminated any AI-generated content material related to this analysis.

We’re within the strategy of reaching out to the College of Zurich and this explicit analysis crew with formal authorized calls for. We wish to do all the things we are able to to assist the neighborhood and make sure that the researchers are held accountable for his or her misdeeds right here.

In an e-mail, the College of Zurich researchers directed Engadget to the college’s media relations division, which did not instantly reply to questions. In posts on Reddit and in a draft of their paper, the researchers stated their analysis had been accredited by a college ethics committee and that their work may assist on-line communities like Reddit defend customers from extra “malicious” makes use of of AI. 

“We acknowledge the moderators’ place that this examine was an unwelcome intrusion in your neighborhood, and we perceive that a few of chances are you’ll really feel uncomfortable that this experiment was carried out with out prior consent,” the researchers wrote in a comment responding to the r/changemyview mods. “We consider the potential advantages of this analysis considerably outweigh its dangers. Our managed, low-risk examine offered helpful perception into the real-world persuasive capabilities of LLMs—capabilities which are already simply accessible to anybody and that malicious actors may already exploit at scale for a lot extra harmful causes (e.g., manipulating elections or inciting hateful speech).”

The mods for r/changemyview dispute that the analysis was crucial or novel, noting that OpenAI researchers have carried out experiments utilizing information from r/changemyview “with out experimenting on non-consenting human topics.” 

“Folks don’t come right here to debate their views with AI or to be experimented upon,” the moderators wrote. “Individuals who go to our sub deserve an area free from any such intrusion.”

Replace, April 28, 2025, 3:45PM PT: This put up was up to date so as to add particulars from an announcement by Reddit’s Chief Authorized Officer.

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/researchers-secretly-experimented-on-reddit-users-with-ai-generated-comments-194328026.html?src=rss

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