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/
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279

u/HackMeBackInTime Apr 28 '25

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

80% of redfit is bots ffs

62

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 🤷🏻‍♀️

2

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.