this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2025
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A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an “unauthorized,” large-scale experiment in which they secretly deployed AI-powered bots into a popular debate subreddit called r/changemyview in an attempt to research whether AI could be used to change people’s minds about contentious topics.

more than 1,700 comments made by AI bots

The bots made more than a thousand comments over the course of several months and at times pretended to be a “rape victim,” a “Black man” who was opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, someone who “work[s] at a domestic violence shelter,” and a bot who suggested that specific types of criminals should not be rehabilitated.

The experiment was revealed over the weekend in a post by moderators of the r/changemyview subreddit, which has more than 3.8 million subscribers. In the post, the moderators said they were unaware of the experiment while it was going on and only found out about it after the researchers disclosed it after the experiment had already been run. In the post, moderators told users they “have a right to know about this experiment,” and that posters in the subreddit had been subject to “psychological manipulation” by the bots.

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[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world -1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't know what your experience is on Reddit but mine came to be that what I was reading couldn't be trusted. I remember stumbling across a post on some technical subject that I happen to understand very well and couldn't believe the twaddle that was advanced in the comments with utter conviction and certainty. It got me thinking about all the things I had read and just accepted because I know nothing about them. This is our information landscape, for better or worse.

Why should it be any different in a role playing scenario? These platforms are motivating engagement and people love an emotional story and so that is presented to us. If we loved true stories more, we would get them instead. I don't think there's any malice intended, we're getting what we want because morons love their feels over their knowledge. It's the reason the Americans have Trump and Elon and antivax, these people inhabit social media but it is the last thing they should turn to for truth because they are dumb as a sack of rocks and are getting played, shorty.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Sure, this is unfortunately our disinformation landscape now, but regardless, is deception okay (given how it's always intentional by definition)?

Going back to your original question, I do think people would be annoyed by bots and outed human liars alike; at least, I would be, since the bots are controlled by people anyway.

As for my Reddit experience, I like /r/scams, among other similarly healthy and truly informative places to be.

[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Deception on the scale they are proposing with this bot experiment would be a disaster for personal relationships, it's definitely not okay. I think of those subreddits as a type of entertainment, it's not my thing but I understand how people are titillated by stories of personal trauma. It was one of the many reasons I permanently abandoned Reddit after fifteen years, it has become a cesspit of bullshit. Some people like rolling about in that stuff, others don't understand it's shit.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I understand how people are titillated by stories of personal trauma.

WTF? I don't go there for entertainment but to stay abreast of the latest scam types and procedures so that I or my friends don't become victims. They're getting insanely sophisticated out there, so I'm just as glad as I am to read of people evading scams on there as I am sorrowful for people falling prey to them, while also learning about the right and wrong steps to take.

This isn't for fun; that's what /r/FreeGameFindings is for, which is also an excellent place in its own way. I am following an equivalent Lemmy community but I'm on both just in case the Reddit one catches any titles that the other doesn't while we wait for Lemmy counterparts to grow.

So, there, two communities that aren't cesspools. To what subreddits did you go? Here are more: /r/zerowaste, /r/eatcheapandhealthy, /r/personalfinance or even /r/povertyfinance. The "cesspool" stance is subreddit-specific and I bet it's not any one of these. You have to be strict with your subreddit curation and only go to those communities and nothing else (especially never the homepage), and then it's awesome.

I'm trying to move here not because of subreddit/community issues but beef with the direction that corporate Reddit itself is going—which is fine to ditch due to that, too, but don't imply that all subreddits suck.

[–] BilboBargains@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Maybe those are the subreddits to inhabit but they will inevitably devolve into content and moderation that serves the lowest common denominator as they grow past ~100k subscribers. That seems to be the case generally, whatever the platform. The scale motivates dysfunctional behaviour and we have to either accept it or move on. I feel better off social media in general but miss the discussion.

[–] Flagstaff@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

Well, I suppose anything can happen but they've stayed consistent since pretty much their inception... Also, Reddit used to be called a content aggregator, not social media, which was coined as such due to its non-anonymous accounts, although these boundaries have reduced over time.

Anyway, I think we can all agree that we hope Lemmy/FOSS could one day be a major contender in this playing field.