Reddit AI Study Spurs Legal, Ethics Backlash

Researchers from the University of Zurich secretly ran a four-month experiment on Reddit’s r/ChangeMyView subreddit, using AI-generated personas to test the persuasive power of large language models without user consent. The bots posed as trauma counselors, sexual assault survivors, and people with varying political and social views, tailoring arguments by analyzing users’ Reddit histories for personal information. The experiment was discovered only after it ended, leading moderators and users to condemn it as psychological manipulation and an ethical breach that violated subreddit rules and Reddit’s Terms of Service. Reddit banned the accounts involved, and the company’s Chief Legal Officer strongly rejected the researchers’ justification, raising the possibility of legal action. Formal complaints were filed with the University of Zurich, and the legitimacy of publishing the research is now in doubt. The controversy has sparked wider debate about research ethics, transparency, and the risks of undisclosed AI experiments in online communities.