Controversy Surrounds University of Zurich’s AI Experiment on Reddit
Researchers at the University of Zurich have been accused of conducting an unauthorized four-month experiment on Reddit’s r/changemyview subreddit. The experiment involved using artificial intelligence (AI) to generate comments and test their persuasive capabilities.
Moderators of the subreddit revealed the experiment in an April 26 post, expressing outrage that their community was used without permission. “Our sub is a decidedly human space that rejects undisclosed AI as a core value,” they stated. “People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon.”
During the experiment, AI-powered accounts assumed various personas, including a rape victim, someone opposed to specific social movements, and a trauma counselor specializing in abuse. These accounts posted 1,783 comments and received 137 “deltas” – a Reddit marker indicating that a user’s opinion had been changed.
The experiment showed that LLMs can be highly persuasive, surpassing known benchmarks of human persuasiveness. However, it also highlighted the challenges of distinguishing between human and AI interactions, as the AI bots went undetected throughout the four-month period.
Reddit’s chief legal officer, Ben Lee, announced that the platform is considering legal action against the researchers. “We are in the process of reaching out to the University of Zurich and this particular research team with formal legal demands,” Lee stated.
The r/changemyview subreddit, with 3.8 million members, is among the top 1% of subreddits by size. The controversy has sparked debate about the ethics of using AI in online experiments and the need for greater transparency and accountability in research practices.
