Experiment using AI to influence people: ethics disorders or a scientific breakthrough?

Zurich University conducted a study aimed at identifying the efficiency of AI use to persuade people. Researchers used bots in the real environment without notifying users that they communicate with a bot that violated Reddit community rules.

After completing the study, they provided Reddit moderators with a draft completed work, which moderators published in the community. However, this caused rapid discussions about the ethics of such a study. 🧠

💡 It is important to note that researchers argue that their research was ethical, despite the violation of the rules of the community. They state that their research methodology was approved by the ethical commission, and all generated comments were tested for lack of harmful or unethical content.

⚡ However, Reddit community moderators deny these statements, believing that researchers have crossed the limit of ethics using personalized arguments without first consulting the University Ethics Commission.

• 📌 Researchers violated Reddit rules by conducting a live experiment with AI to persuade people.
• 📌 Reddit moderators believe that researchers have done unfair psychological manipulation.
• 📌 AI boots used personal information of users to create highly personalized arguments.
• 📌 Researchers have found that AI bots were more effective in believing people than people and remained unaffected by users.
• 📌 Research emphasizes the urgent need to develop tools for detecting and checking the content generated by AI.