Researchers at the University of Zurich have admitted to secretly posting AI-generated content on the popular subreddit r/changemyview as part of a scientific study. According to a draft report on their work, the subreddit serves as a platform where users share opinions and challenge others to change their perspectives through civil debate, with readers acknowledging posts that effectively change their views. The researchers aimed to investigate whether large language models (LLMs) could influence readers’ opinions by engaging in discussions using semi-automated, AI-powered accounts. Despite knowing that the subreddit’s rules require disclosure of AI-generated content, the team failed to inform moderators or seek permission. They justified their actions by emphasizing the societal importance of the topic and the necessity of conducting the study, even if it meant breaking community rules. Their proposed study, outlined in a November 2024 post on the Center for Open Science, described using LLMs to create both generic posts and personalized messages reflecting the age, gender, ethnicity, location, and political leanings of subreddit users. They also planned to generate replies with a fine-tuned model trained on prior forum comments, using prompts designed to simulate expert persuasive communication aimed at changing opinions. The moderators learned of the study in March when the university disclosed it in a message stating that multiple accounts were used to post on r/changemyview, that comments were not labeled as AI-generated to preserve the study’s feasibility, and that all comments were manually reviewed to avoid harm. The researchers apologized for violating community rules but argued that the study’s importance warranted such measures. Subreddit moderators investigated and found that the AI bots had posted content including impersonations such as a rape victim, a trauma counselor, a critic blaming a religious group for deaths, a Black man opposing Black Lives Matter, and a person receiving poor healthcare abroad. They claimed the researchers had initial approval from the university’s ethics board but altered the experiment without further review.

Consequently, the moderators filed a complaint with the university and called for the study to be withheld from publication. The University of Zurich responded by maintaining that the insights gained outweigh minimal risks, asserting that suppressing publication would be disproportionate. The subreddit moderators disagree, citing an OpenAI study that conducted similar research without experimenting on non-consenting human subjects. Public reaction has largely condemned the experiment as unethical. Dr. Casey Fiesler, a University of Colorado Boulder information science professor, labeled it "one of the worst violations of research ethics, " criticizing the deceptive manipulation of online communities without consent and highlighting the harm caused. The Zurich researchers’ draft paper, titled “Can AI Change Your View?Evidence from a Large-Scale Online Field Experiment, ” reports that LLMs can be highly persuasive in real-world settings, surpassing previous benchmarks of human persuasiveness. However, the ethical controversy surrounding their methods continues to fuel debate about the study’s legitimacy and impact.