Researchers at the University of Zurich conducted a months-long AI experiment, Reddit’s 3.8 million R/ChangemyView community without user consent.
A group of researchers at the University of Zurich used AI-generated comments to conduct a secret months of experimentation that affected Reddit users without their knowledge or consent.
The experiment happened R/ChangemyViewa subreddit, composed of 3.8 million people, is famous for its civil debate. The researchers deployed Big Language Model (LLM) Write a personalized, persuasive reply, pose as a real person to see if AI can change the user’s perspective.
detail
- Comments generated by AI are centered on real users and are posted in comments.
- The roles include trauma survivors and controversial political voices.
- The personal data used by AI scrapes away from the user’s history to tailor-made persuasive responses.
- No activity was disclosed, Violate the Subreddit and Reddit scope rules.
It’s not just a robot.
It is a psychological manipulation that uses personal data to test the effectiveness of AI Change people’s minds.
Reddit Chief Legal Officer Ben Lee Calling it “deeply wrong on both moral and legal levels” and confirming that Reddit is preparing for a formal legal lawsuit.
Photography Brett Jordan exist Unplash
Researchers’ defense
They claim their ethics committee approved the project and believe their goal is to show how AI can be abused to manipulate elections or spread hate speech.
“We believe that the potential benefits of this study far outweigh its risks,” the researchers wrote.
Rebound
R/Changemyview’s mod was angry, calling the study “unpopular” and “manipulative”.
They filed a complaint and asked the university to block the publication of the study. The experiment reveals a growing threat: the persuasiveness of AI-driven on a large scale without consent. It shows that when AI knows your beliefs and imitates your peers, people can be easily affected.
Used as a redditor as a test object.
It’s not just an academic exercise. It shows the power and subtle operation of AI, especially when it uses personal data to mimic human voices.
With the general expansion of generative AI, The risk of AI-driven operations is no longer theoretical. It’s true, just happening in one of the largest communities on the internet.
Now, Reddit, one of the world’s largest online communities, is fighting back.
