ReadNOW

Behind the scenes in one in all Reddit’s largest communities, one thing creepy has been brewing. For 4 months, AI-powered bots masqueraded as people, swaying opinions and incomes 1000’s of upvotes.

The experiment gave the impression to be working—till everybody came upon.

Reddit introduced plans earlier this week to tighten person verification after studying that researchers from the College of Zurich performed an unauthorized experiment on the r/changemyview subreddit, utilizing AI bots to control customers with out their information or consent.

The researchers had deployed the bots, which used delicate personas—together with trauma counselors, sexual assault survivors, and controversial political identities—from late 2024 to early 2025, and posted over 1,700 feedback. The AI entities additionally analyzed customers’ posting histories to craft persuasive, customized responses—all with out disclosing that they have been AI brokers.

In a publish to the group, Reddit’s Chief Authorized Officer Ben Lee condemned the experiment as “deeply mistaken on each an ethical and authorized stage,” citing violations of the platform’s person settlement and analysis ethics. The corporate has banned all accounts linked to the analysis and filed formal complaints with the College of Zurich.

Protecting Reddit human means sharing extra data

“Reddit works as a result of it is human,” CEO Steve Huffman wrote in a latest platform replace. “It’s one of many few locations on-line the place actual folks share actual opinions… If we lose belief in that, we lose what makes Reddit… Reddit.”

The experiment hit on the coronary heart of what makes on-line communities perform: belief. Moderators described it as “psychological manipulation,” noting that customers be part of the subreddit anticipating real human interactions, to not be unwitting check topics.

That mentioned, the AI bots have been remarkably efficient, gathering over 20,000 upvotes and 137 “deltas”—awards given when somebody efficiently adjustments one other person’s view. Nevertheless, the experiment solely gained steam after the researchers revealed their work. To stop one other incident—even a secret one—Reddit is now fast-tracking measures to confirm that customers are human with out compromising privateness.

“To maintain Reddit human and to fulfill evolving regulatory necessities, we’re going to want a little bit extra data,” Huffman defined. “Particularly, we might want to know whether or not you’re a human, and in some areas, in case you are an grownup. However we by no means need to know your identify or who you might be.”

The corporate plans to associate with third-party verification companies to conduct such checks.

Huffman emphasised that sustaining anonymity stays a cornerstone of the platform: “Anonymity is crucial to Reddit. Now we have been—and can proceed to be—extraordinarily protecting of your private data.”

Whereas Reddit already makes use of AI instruments for duties like content material moderation and spam filtering, the corporate has set a restrict with regards to bots impersonating customers. “Our focus is, and all the time shall be, on protecting Reddit a trusted place for human dialog,” Huffman affirmed.

The platform presently bans “dangerous” bots, however the incident highlighted vital vulnerabilities within the present system. As AI turns into more and more subtle, distinguishing between human and machine-generated content material presents mounting challenges for on-line communities.

Reddit didn’t reply to a request for remark, however Reddit person Apprehensive_Song490, who serves as a moderator at r/changemyview, advised Decrypt that interactions with AI for analysis functions could be fastidiously examined by the moderators. “My normal impression is that the crew is all the time receptive to researchers and that we might contemplate requests on a case-by-case foundation,” he mentioned.

As Reddit approaches its twentieth anniversary, the incident underscores a pivotal second for the platform and related on-line communities. The problem forward lies in harnessing AI’s advantages whereas preserving the human connection that makes these areas priceless within the first place.

“The web is altering quickly, and human views have by no means been extra vital,” Huffman famous. “No resolution is ideal—together with the established order—however we’ll do our greatest to protect each the humanness and anonymity of Reddit.”

Edited by James Rubin