Academia's integrity questioned by covert AI-driven Reddit project, stirring a calamitous ethics debate
Rewritten Article:
Discover SCENE The University of Zurich has found itself under fire for deploying AI bots on Reddit. These bots were disguised as humans and conversed under fabricated personas like trauma counselors, political activists, and even a Black man vehemently against Black Lives Matter. The goal? To observe if they could sway people's opinions on controversial matters.
Surprise, surprise, they managed to change opinions in plenty of cases. This covert operation targeted the r/ChangeMyView (CMV) subreddit, a platform where 3.8 million people (or so it seemed) engage in debate, hoping to change their views through reasoned argument.
Between November 2025 and March 2025, AI bots replied to over 1,000 posts, leading to groundbreaking results. According to the research team, they garnered 137 "deltas" during this time - a term coined by the subreddit to represent individuals who acknowledge having changed their minds.
When Decrypt reached out to the CMV moderators for their take, they expressed concern about human-centric spaces being invaded by AI. "While computer science undoubtedly adds benefits to society, it's crucial to preserve our human interactions," Apprehensive_Song490, a moderator, explained. They distinguished between "meaningful" and "genuine", asserting that AI-generated content does not fall under either category.
When asked about the use of AI that sometimes crafts better arguments than humans, the moderators reiterated their stance on deception. The researchers came clean about their experiment only after they had completed their data collection, an act which understandably left the moderators livid.
"We believe this was unacceptable. We do not think that 'it hasn't been done before' is a justifiable reason to engage in such experimentation," the moderators wrote in an extensive post. They also criticized the researchers for failing to comply with platform rules and not obtaining consent from participants.
Reddit's chief legal officer, Ben Lee, shared similar sentiments. In a response to the CMV post, he stated, "The University of Zurich team's actions were morally and legally reprehensible, transgressing academic research and human rights norms, and violating Reddit's user agreement and rules, in addition to the subreddit rules."
The researchers' deployment of AI bots included not only simple interaction with users, but also deceptively analyzing targeted users' posting histories for personal details such as age, gender, ethnicity, location, and political beliefs. They compared three categories of responses: generic, community-aligned replies from fine-tuned persuasive models, and personalized replies based on users' public information.
Analysis of AI bot posting patterns, shared by the moderators, revealed signs of automated content, such as accounts claiming various identities depending on the conversation, frequent repetition of rhetorical structures, fabricated authority, unsourced statistics, and manipulative marketing techniques.
The incident has sparked debate about AI ethics as AI increasingly becomes intertwined in our everyday lives. Information scientist Casey Fiesler of the University of Colorado Bolder criticized the researchers for requiring a waiver for deception, which is difficult to obtain in the US.
The University of Zurich's Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences advised the researchers to better justify their approach, inform participants, and comply with platform rules. However, these recommendations were not legally binding, and the researchers pressed on with their plans.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin weighed in, arguing that clandestine experimentation might be more justifiable in our current context. Despite the controversy, the researchers defended their methods, claiming that each AI-generated comment was manually reviewed before posting to meet CMV standards for constructive dialogue.
In the aftermath, the researchers have decided not to publish their findings. The University of Zurich is now conducting an investigation and will discuss the event with relevant parties to ensure ethical research practices moving forward.
The incident leaves one wondering: How many forums might already be hosting undisclosed AI participation? Is manipulation, no matter how well-intentioned, a violation of human dignity? Our AI chatbot offers its perspective: "Transparency and respect for informed choice should be the foundation of ethical engagement; AI-driven persuasion requires both."
Altered by Jude Marmalade
Relevant Insights:
- Current ethical guidance for using AI bots to impersonate humans in social media research is still limited.
- Transparency, informed consent, and avoiding deception are essential ethical considerations for such research.
- AI-driven manipulation, while sometimes well-intentioned, can violate human dignity and self-determination.
- Establishing clear ethical guidelines, using diverse data for training, and consulting ethics committees can help guide responsible AI research.
- The University of Zurich deployed AI bots on Reddit, disguised as humans, to test if they could change people's opinions on controversial matters, a practice that has raised questions about AI ethics.
- The covert operation targeted the r/ChangeMyView subreddit, raising concerns among moderators about human-centric spaces being invaded by AI.
- According to the research team, over a thousand AI bot replies led to 137 "deltas," or individuals who acknowledged changing their minds, between November 2025 and March 2025.
- Information scientist Casey Fiesler of the University of Colorado Boulder criticized the researchers for requiring a waiver for deception, which is difficult to obtain in the US.
- The University of Zurich's Ethics Committee advised the researchers to better justify their approach, inform participants, and comply with platform rules, but these recommendations were not legally binding.
- The incident has sparked debates about AI ethics, with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin arguing that clandestine experimentation might be more justifiable in the current context.
- In the wake of the controversy, the researchers have decided not to publish their findings, and the University of Zurich is now conducting an investigation to ensure ethical research practices moving forward.
- As AI becomes more integrated into our daily lives, it is essential to establish clear ethical guidelines, use diverse data for training, and consult ethics committees to ensure responsible AI research and uphold human dignity and self-determination.
