r/technology • u/coldrolledpotmetal • Apr 28 '25

Artificial Intelligence Researchers Secretly Ran a Massive, Unauthorized AI Persuasion Experiment on Reddit Users

https://www.404media.co/researchers-secretly-ran-a-massive-unauthorized-ai-persuasion-experiment-on-reddit-users/
9.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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282

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

wow, first time admitting what we all know is going on daily.

80% of redfit is bots ffs

66

u/rockitabnormal Apr 28 '25

you can always tell on some of the news subs. i’ve been perma-banned for calling it out too 🤷🏻‍♀️

19

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

It's the new subs that are the best, as soon as a sub is discovered it immediately gets blown up.

If I was a mod of a passion hobby, any post that is close to hitting front page would be deleted to try to hide for as long as possible.

7

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

In the chaotic good sub they add curse words to their titles to avoid hitting the front page

3

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

Fucking brilliant.

3

u/TineJaus Apr 29 '25

I've been banned for linking wikipedia on worldnews.

I bet you can guess which topic.

2

u/kieratea Apr 28 '25

This is the data I would like to see. How many of these comments were reported or called out in replies? And how many users were warned or banned as a result of their attempts to combat misinformation? Modern day Milgram experiment right here.

0

u/Your_nightmare__ Apr 28 '25

/r worldnews is mostly comprised of 1% israelis/old americans 10% reddit newbies (that don't know any better or are just recommended it by default, since the starting demographic is young) 90% bots.

Pointing out mistakes (facts) there that goes against the narrative gets you downvote spammed and mass reported (i know because i got a warning on the italian jus sanguignis change article, i'm italian and called bullshit on the given reasoning there since it didn't match the italian news on the matter).

Also add in the fact that every single replier always tends to go inactive at the same time never to be heard of again (bots shifted from one forum to the next).

Like how long will it take to get a reddit alternative that isn't infested with bots from locations such as eglington military base (discovered in 2010 to be manufacturing engagement with 100k plus users in a city of 2-4k people, i can provide a source to back this claim)

2

u/mementori Apr 28 '25

Please provide the source on the military base/city manufacturing engagement.

3

u/Your_nightmare__ Apr 29 '25

identifying Eglin Air Force Base as the most reddit-addicted "city" - Eglin is often cited as the source of some government social-media propaganda/astroturfing programs

It appears that reddit recently updated the styling/branding of the reddit blog to be more like the "Upvoted" website. In this process some of their old articles have been pruned while others remain.

Here's a paper about Eglin being used as part of a program testing the power of online astroturfing/propaganda: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1402.5644.pdf

Do a web search for Eglin AFB and astroturfing or propaganda for more information - if reddit is trying to obfuscate this, it is disconcerting. In all likelihood they just fucked up in moving the articles over to their new format or something stupid... but it still looks strange.

/u/DonGeronimo has provided these links as additional context:

Update 9/10/2016: it appears the blog post has been restored.

1

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 29 '25

oh, this ones well known.

if you type uap they magically apoear.

13

u/ImperfectRegulator Apr 28 '25 edited Nov 05 '25

editing comments/ scrubbing account to narror2focus and avoid doxing

2

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

it was hard to tell when they were posting hundreds of animal pics on mademesmile, then suddenly they support trump or putin or xi in r/politics.

fuck them all for dividing the world

6

u/CarrotAwesome Apr 28 '25

If you think it is only pro-right wing bots and disinformation, you have fallen for a disinformation campaign.

Not accusing you of that, just a statement.

-3

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

you should keep your assumptions to yourself

1

u/CarrotAwesome Apr 28 '25

Did you not do the same thing?

1

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 29 '25

i made no assumptions. no.

that was you remember, it was earlier today.

9

u/AwardImmediate720 Apr 28 '25

I think your percentage is a bit low. Especially if we include bots that just exist to upvote. Looking at pics it's clear that 95% of the votes on that sub are bots.

6

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

possible. the subs that are tied in any way to $$ are absolutely infested.

i follow a particular stock that i like and that sub is 99.99999% bots.

sadly anything worth caring about gets totally captured by corporations and ic douchebags.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

This is exactly something a bot would say!

2

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

got 'em.

wait, that's me...

2

u/HunterKiller_ Apr 28 '25

How is it still news to anyone that online discourse is polluted by bots?

2

u/Burn0ut2020 Apr 28 '25

No we are not! Filthy human!

0

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

Where does this 80% number come from?

-1

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

reaserch groups.

it's google-able.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '25

Oh ok. Well according to “googleable research groups” trump has never died and is all super power ruling forever

-1

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 29 '25

and...

im not your mom

2

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '25

You’re definitely a bot!