CMV subreddit infiltrated by bots for an unethical university experiment

Researchers from The University of Zurich secretly ran a study involving AI bots to see if they change people's opinions on various subjects. The experiment targeted the r/changemyview (CMV) subreddit, a popular discussion thread on numerous topics from opposing viewpoints.

The unnamed researchers did not contact the moderators beforehand or seek permission before deploying the AI-generated bots. The moderators were informed after the experiment via email as "part of a disclosure step."

Some of the more damning examples include a bot "pretending to be a victim of rape," one that acted "as a trauma counselor specializing in abuse," or a bot that posed "as a black man opposed to Black Lives Matter."

The moderators also accused the researchers of switching from a planned "values-based arguments" approach authorized by the ethics commission at the university to make more "personalized and fine-tuned arguments" that were not approved.

The bots were given access to the personal attributes of the Original Poster (OP), which included gender, age, location, ethnicity, and political orientation as inferred by their posting history on the platform. The researchers argued the method was justified because "the lack of existing field experiments constitutes an unacceptable gap in the body of knowledge."

The response from the University of Zurich's research team did little to douse the fire. They claimed they were "committed to full transperency." They pleaded their case in the guise of "helping society prepare for the real-world impact of AI-powered persuasion."

More importantly, they thought this project "yielded important insights," and "suppressing publication is not proportionate to the importance of the insights the study yields."

In an email sent to Engadget, the researchers claimed "the potential benefits of this research substantially outweigh its risks."

It got so bad that Reddit's Chief Legal Officer, Ben Lee, responded to the posts, saying the team had "banned all accounts associated with the University of Zurich research effort." Lee said Reddit was "in the process of reaching out to the University of Zurich and this particular research team with formal legal demands."