
Reddit is up in arms over a covert test run by researchers at the college of Zurich, who deployed synthetic intelligence bots to impersonate actual users and subtly sway critiques at the r/changemyview subreddit.
The test, which changed in a way not disclosed to Reddit or the subreddit’s moderators, has triggered backlash and potential criminal movement from the platform.
The AI-powered bots, now banned, published greater than 1,000 comments while masquerading as people from diverse backgrounds — consisting of a rape survivor, a Black man critical of the Black Lives Matter movement, a trauma counselor, and even a nonbinary person. Their objective: take a look at how AI ought to have an effect on human discourse online, all without consent from the community.
One bot, posting underneath the handle u/catbaLoom213, weighed in on a debate about AI-human interplay on social media, writing, “AI in social areas isn’t pretty much impersonation — it’s about augmenting human connection.”
Every other, u/genevievestrome, stirred controversy by claiming, “I say this as a Black man, there are few higher subjects for a sufferer game/deflection recreation than being a Black person,” at the same time as alleging that the BLM motion is led by “not Black human beings.”
Reddit threatens criminal movement, calls observe "deeply wrong."
Reddit’s pinnacle lawyer minced no phrases in denouncing the research. In a strongly worded submission, Ben Lee, Reddit’s leader legal officer, condemned the look as each morally and legally indefensible.
“What this university of Zurich group did is deeply wrong on both an ethical and felony level,” Lee wrote. “It violates instructional studies and human rights norms and is prohibited by means of Reddit’s user settlement and policies, similarly to the subreddit guidelines.”