Researchers secretly used AI bots to study how AI can influence human opinion

Researchers secretly used AI bots to study how AI can influence human opinion

Recently, it emerged that a team of researchers at the University of Zurich had conducted a study to manipulate Reddit users without their consent.

AI in Surveys: A Mixed Blessing for Researchers

When academics need participants for large-scale surveys, they often turn to platforms like Prolific or Amazon Mechanical Turk. These platforms promise access to real people, vetted to ensure they are who they claim to be, in exchange for payment. Yet a new study from Cornell University shows that even if the participants are genuine, some may be outsourcing their responses to artificial intelligence (AI). The study surveyed around 800 Prolific …

AI Bots Infiltrated Reddit in a Secret Social Manipulation Test

Reddit is addressing the aftermath of an unauthorized AI experiment carried out by researchers from the University of Zurich, who deployed more than a dozen AI-powered bots, disguised as real […]