Did AI Manipulate You? Inside Switzerland's Controversial Reddit Experiment

Did AI truly manipulate Reddit users without their knowledge? Dive into the explosive details of the "exceptionally challenging" fake news study by Swiss-based researchers, linked to the University of Zurich, that secretly deployed AI bots using Large Language Models (LLMs) to invent opinions and influence public discourse on r/changemyview. Unaware participants debated AI-composed viewpoints, stretching ethical boundaries "beyond breaking point". This controversial experiment, which failed to inform participants in advance, "provoked a storm of criticism" from the Reddit community, researchers, and international media. Discover why researchers "disobeyed the rules" of the platform and their subsequent "full and deeply felt apology," even as questions of "bad science is bad ethics" and potential data protection violations persist.