Researchers catfished Redditors with AI for science

As part of a recent experiment, researchers from the University of Zurich unleashed an army of AI bots onto unwitting users of the subreddit r/ChangeMyView—a digital coliseum where ~3.8 million gladiators of thought go to politely roast each other's hot takes.

The goal: Find out whether AI-generated responses could change people’s views. As part of the experiment:

• The bots posted 1,000+ comments on topics such as the housing crisis, DEI programs, and Israel/US relations. To increase their persuasiveness, many bots adopted fake personas—like a male rape victim or a Black person critical of Black Lives Matter.
• A separate AI was also used to analyze users’ post histories to infer personal details, such as age, race, political beliefs, and location, and tailor responses accordingly.

It worked. The study’s initial results suggest the AI responses were 3x-6x more persuasive than those made by humans.

But…Backlash to the experiment has been intense—on Reddit and in academic circles. Amy Bruckman, a Georgia Tech professor who’s studied online communities for 20+ years, told The Atlantic ($) it’s “the worst internet-research ethics violation I have ever seen.” Reddit said it’s considering legal action.

Big picture: AI is becoming better at persuasion than Bob Burg—the man who wrote The Art of Persuasion—raising concerns about the ability for malicious actors to deploy botnets on a large scale to influence beliefs. In another recent study, an AI chatbot convinced ~25% of conspiracy theorists to reconsider their beliefs after just three conversations.