Experiment using AI-generated posts on Reddit draws fire for ethics concerns -- Retraction Watch

[erronis]

https://retractionwatch.com/2025/04/28/experiment-using-ai-generated-posts-on-reddit-draws-fire-for-ethics-concerns/

An experiment deploying AI-generated messages on a Reddit subforum has drawn criticism for, among other critiques, a lack of informed consent from unknowing participants in the community.

The university overseeing the research is standing by its approval of the study, but has indicated the principal investigator has received a warning for the project.

The subreddit, r/ChangeMyView (CMV), invites people to post a viewpoint or opinion to invite conversation from different perspectives. Its extensive rules are intended to keep discussions civil.

. . .

“This is one of the worst violations of research ethics I’ve ever seen,” Casey Fiesler, an information scientist at the University of Colorado, wrote on Bluesky. “Manipulating people in online communities using deception, without consent, is not ‘low risk’ and, as evidenced by the discourse in this Reddit post, resulted in harm.”

. . .

The genie is out of the bottle and won't be put back in. This particular "experiment" was not well planned or controlled but at least it had a valid scientific purpose. The main problem is that the subjects were not informed and did not have an opportunity to consent/deny.

[erronis]

1. To add another excerpt:

The moderators had also asked the University of Zurich to block the research from being published. The response from the university noted that is outside their purview. A university response quoted in the post stated:

“This project yields important insights, and the risks (e.g. trauma etc.) are minimal. This means that suppressing publication is not proportionate to the importance of the insights the study yields.”

[highplainsdem]

2. The researchers and their university should be sued.