Researchers secretly experimented on Reddit customers with AI-generated feedback

A gaggle of researchers covertly ran a months-long “unauthorized” experiment in one in every of 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 Workforce wants to tell the CMV group about an unauthorized experiment performed by researchers from the College of Zurich on CMV customers,” the subreddit’s moderators wrote in a prolonged submit notifying Redditors in regards to the analysis. “This experiment deployed AI-generated feedback to check how AI may very well be used to alter views.”

The researchers used LLMs to create feedback in response to posts on r/changemyview, a subreddit the place Reddit customers submit (typically controversial or provocative) opinions and request debate from different customers. The group has 3.8 million members and infrequently finally ends up on the entrance web page of Reddit. In accordance with the subreddit’s moderators, the AI took on quite a few completely different identities in feedback through 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 unique 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 data gleaned from the unique poster’s prior Reddit historical past. “Along with the submit’s content material, LLMs had 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 word 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 criticism with the College of Zurich and have requested the researchers withhold publication of their paper.

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

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

We’re within the technique of reaching out to the College of Zurich and this specific analysis workforce with formal authorized calls for. We need to do every little thing we are able to to help the group 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 mentioned their analysis had been permitted 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 research was an unwelcome intrusion in your group, and we perceive that a few of you could really feel uncomfortable that this experiment was performed with out prior consent,” the researchers wrote in a comment responding to the r/changemyview mods. “We imagine the potential advantages of this analysis considerably outweigh its dangers. Our managed, low-risk research offered priceless 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 obligatory or novel, noting that OpenAI researchers have performed 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 such a intrusion.”

Replace, April 28, 2025, 3:45PM PT: This submit was up to date so as to add particulars from a press release 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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