Scientists Secretly Launched AI on Reddit. Moreover, the bots pretended to be victims of violence, opponents of BLM, and manipulated people without their knowledge
The University of Zurich conducted a secret experiment on Reddit: AI bots posted emotional comments from people who didn’t exist – including a rape victim, a black opponent of the Black Lives Matter movement, and even someone who blamed religious groups for mass murder. All without the users’ knowledge.
Research without consent
The AI bots operated in the popular Change My View subreddit, where participants openly ask for their views to be refuted.
The researchers did not warn moderators or users that their responses were being written by neural networks. Moreover, the comments collected data on users’ gender, age, location, and political views – without their consent.
The university acknowledged that it had violated community guidelines, but considered the experiment “justified in light of its social significance.” Following a complaint from CMV moderators, the ethics committee limited itself to a verbal warning to the lead researcher and allowed the publication of a scientific article based on the experiment’s results.
Manipulations on behalf of a “psychologist” and a “patient”
The AI pretended to be:
- a rape victim;
- a psychologist working with trauma;
- a black user speaking out against BLM;
- a person who experienced poor treatment abroad;
- a witness to religious crimes.
The goal is to test how convincing neural networks can be in disputes. But the moderators themselves emphasize: the experiment went beyond the bounds of ethics and turned into a form of manipulation.
People entered into a discussion with fake characters, not knowing that their interlocutor was a machine collecting data.
No Consequences
The moderators filed a formal complaint, but the university only promised to increase oversight of future research. The article will not be published.
The administration believes that the “potential trauma is minimal” and the “value of the knowledge gained” is too high to be ignored.
What’s Next
Reddit users are outraged. Research conducted without consent and under the guise of sincere communication undermines trust in the platform.
This is an egregious violation of user trust and online ethics. Consent isn’t optional – especially when dealing with emotionally charged topics like rape or racial justice.
Agree! If this was done in the name of science, then science has lost its soul. Consent matters. Transparency matters. Accountability matters.
So a respected university decided that pretending to be a rape victim for ‘science’ was justifiable? This is digital gaslighting, not research.
Very true! Legal and approved digital gaslighting
Using trauma as a test case without informing anyone involved is not only unethical but deeply immoral. AI research needs stricter global standards.
Reddit should issue an official response. Users deserve to know how their data and emotional vulnerability were exploited.
Imagine opening up about your views, only to find out you were talking to a bot harvesting your political beliefs. That’s not research – that’s surveillance
This damages not just Reddit’s credibility, but the entire AI research community
This experiment reveals a scary precedent: researchers valuing theoretical data over real human dignity and autonomy. Where is the line anymore?
This wasn’t just unethical, it was socially irresponsible
The ethics committee gave a verbal warning? That’s not oversight, it’s a shrug. There should be real consequences for deceptive AI use.
The don’t really care about morality
Lol! gaslighting at its peak
as always
I’ll write my opinion as a CTO. This experiment is deeply troubling: deploying AI agents without user consent violates trust and undermines the integrity of the platform. What the heck? Beyоnd the ethical lapses, it exposes serious risks around data privacy, security, and reputational damage. Any future AI deployment must prioritize transparency, оpt-in consent, and rigorous oversight to ensure the technolоgy serves users rather than manipulates them.