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Reddit has banned a team of University of Zurich researchers following an ethically questionable experiment that employed AI bots to influence users within the r/changemymind subreddit. The AI agents, designed to impersonate diverse personas, including a trauma counselor and individuals with specific viewpoints on social issues, posted 1,783 comments and amassed over 10,000 karma points while interacting with unsuspecting Reddit users.

The experiment, which leveraged advanced Large Language Models (LLMs) like GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Llama 3.1-405B, aimed to assess the persuasive power of AI in online environments. However, Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer, Ben Lee, strongly condemned the project as “improper and highly unethical,” raising concerns about its moral and legal implications. Reddit is exploring potential legal recourse.

The University of Zurich has also initiated an investigation into the researchers’ methodology and has withheld publication of the study’s results. Preliminary reports suggest the bots were programmed to analyze users’ posting histories to craft targeted persuasive arguments. More details are available at The Verge.