Researchers ran an unsanctioned experiment using AI in Reddit's r/changemyview that its mioderators are calling "psychological manipulation."
  • GreenKnight23@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    9 days ago

    I haven’t seen this question asked.

    how can the results be trusted that they were actually interacting with real humans?

    what’s the percentage of bot-to-bot contamination?

    this study looks more like a hacky farce that is only meant to bring attention to our manipulation and less like actual science.

    any professional that puts their name on this steaming pile should be ashamed of themselves.

  • rooster_butt@lemm.eeEnglish
    10·
    9 days ago

    CMV: this was a good research akin to something like white hat hackers where the point is to find and expose security exploits. What this research did is point out how easy it is to manipulate people in a “debate” forum that doesn’t allow people from pointing out bad behavior. If this is being done by researchers and publishing it. It’s also being done be nefarious actors that will not disclose it.

  • TootSweet@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    9 days ago

    Reddit: “Nobody gets to secretly experiment on Reddit users with AI-generated comments but us!”

    • Zenoctate@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      9 days ago

      They literally have some AI thing called “answers” which is shitty practice of pushing AI by reddit

  • BossDj@lemm.eeEnglish
    6·
    9 days ago

    What they should do is convince a smaller subsection of reddit users to break off to a new site, maybe entice them with promises of a FOSS platform. Maybe a handful of real people and all the rest LLM bots. They’ll never know

      • BossDj@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        9 days ago

        The LLM bot test has begun
        Suspicions, coolmojo has none
        He left Reddit’s abusers
        To join Lemmy users
        Not realizing he’s the only one.

  • Neuromorph@lemm.eeEnglish
    4·
    9 days ago

    Good i spent at least the last 3 years on reddit making asinine comments, phrases, and punctuation to throw off any AI botS

  • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    Just in my own understanding of life. There are these political think tanks. They are staffed by your old professors professors professor. These guys make big bucks to sit around and do this stuff then figure out attack points. I really think they had this research probably 20 years ago. I figure that’s what the guys do all day. Eventually the results end up in the firm that handles Steven Crowder, Ben Shapiro, that guy living in the Philippines.

  • MichaelMuse@programming.devEnglish
    1·
    8 days ago

    Wow, this is pretty concerning. As someone who spends a lot of time on Reddit, I find it really unsettling that researchers would experiment on users without their knowledge. It’s like walking into a coffee shop for a casual chat and unknowingly becoming part of a psychology experiment!