The scandal over the secret AI experiment erupted on Reddit
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For several months, the team from the University of Zurich has been quietly posting AI-generated comments on the popular r/changemyview subreddit. Moderators, who revealed the experiment over the weekend, consider it a "psychological manipulation" of the community of 3.8 million members.
Engadget writes about it.
How the experiment was conducted
According to the moderators, the researchers created dozens of bot accounts and responded to user posts on behalf of fictional characters, including a "sexual assault survivor," a "trauma counsellor," and a "Black man opposed to Black Lives Matter." In the draft of the research paper, the authors explain that they personalised the lines by first determining the gender, age, ethnicity, place of residence, and political views of the original author based on his or her Reddit history.
Moderators noted that this approach violates the community rules: it is necessary to warn about the use of AI, and it is also forbidden to use bots. They have already complained to the university and asked not to publish the article without the community's consent.
Reddit's position was outlined by General Counsel Ben Lee, who called the scientists' actions "deeply immoral and illegal" and in violation of the platform's rules. The company has blocked all related accounts, is working to improve its system for detecting inauthentic content, and is preparing legal claims against the university and the authors.
In comments on Reddit, the researchers stressed that the experiment was approved by the ethics committee, and its result will help communities protect themselves from more dangerous forms of manipulation that can already be carried out by attackers. Moderators of r/changemyview disagreed: in their opinion, there are ways to study the persuasiveness of AI without interfering with real discussions and without the consent of real people.
"People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon," they emphasized.
As a reminder, users are accustomed to ChatGPT as a convenient tool used by millions of people around the world. Nevertheless, experts warn that it is absolutely impossible to trust personal data to AI.
We also wrote that the WhatsApp audience is annoyed with the Meta AI button that cannot be removed. Users describe the new ability to summon AI as an "affront" to the app.
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