{"id":199528,"date":"2025-06-02T04:44:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T04:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=199528"},"modified":"2025-06-01T08:48:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-01T08:48:29","slug":"swiss-university-caught-in-ai-consciousness-control-scandal-reddit-users-manipulated-by-deceptive-chatbots-in-secret-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/swiss-university-caught-in-ai-consciousness-control-scandal-reddit-users-manipulated-by-deceptive-chatbots-in-secret-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss university caught in AI consciousness control scandal: Reddit users manipulated by deceptive chatbots in secret experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The covert AI experiment that crossed ethical boundaries<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a shocking breach of trust, researchers at the University of Zurich conducted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/news\/616816-switzerland-university-ai-chatbots-reddit\/\">a secret AI-driven social experiment<\/a> on Reddit users \u2013 without their knowledge or consent. The study, which involved AI-generated comments designed to influence opinions on hot-button issues, has sparked outrage among the platform\u2019s community and drawn sharp condemnation from Reddit\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-199532\" src=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-7-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-7-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-7-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1-7.jpg 959w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The experiment targeted <em>r\/ChangeMyView<\/em>, a debate subreddit with 3.8 million members, where users post controversial opinions and invite counterarguments. Over several months, AI-powered bots \u2013 posing as real people \u2013 flooded discussions with over 1,700 deceptive comments. Some of the fabricated personas included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A male rape victim downplaying the trauma of sexual assault.<\/li>\n<li>A black man opposing organizations fighting for minorities\u2019 rights.<\/li>\n<li>A domestic trauma counsellor claiming the most vulnerable women were those \u201c<em>sheltered by overprotective parents<\/em>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Worse still, the AI was programmed to scan users\u2019 profiles and tailor arguments based on their personal data \u2013 gender, age, ethnicity, and political leanings \u2013 effectively weaponizing personal information to maximize persuasion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Reddit fights back: Legal action looms<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Reddit\u2019s moderators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/ai\/researchers-secretly-experimented-on-reddit-users-with-ai-generated-comments-194328026.html\">discovered the scheme<\/a>, they swiftly banned the bot accounts and alerted the community. Chief Legal Officer Ben Lee called the experiment \u201c<em>deeply wrong on both a moral and legal level<\/em>\u201d and confirmed that the platform is preparing formal legal demands against the University of Zurich.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers, however, defended their work, claiming it was approved by the university\u2019s ethics committee and arguing that their findings could help combat \u201c<em>malicious AI manipulation<\/em>\u201d in the future. But critics aren\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon<\/em>,\u201d the <em>r\/ChangeMyView<\/em> moderators wrote. \u201c<em>People who visit our sub deserve a space free from this type of intrusion<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>A dangerous precedent: AI as a tool for mass manipulation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/2478336-reddit-users-were-subjected-to-ai-powered-experiment-without-consent\/\">scandal exposes<\/a> a disturbing trend: governments, corporations, and now academic institutions are weaponizing AI to shape public opinion. While Western nations frequently accuse foreign actors (like Russia) of using bot farms to interfere in elections, this case reveals that the same tactics are being tested by trusted western institutions.<\/p>\n<p>Carissa V\u00e9liz, an ethics expert at the University of Oxford, slammed the study: \u201c<em>The study was based on manipulation and deceit with non-consenting research subjects. That seems like it was unjustified<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even more chilling? The researchers instructed the AI that users had \u201c<em>provided informed consent<\/em>\u201d \u2013 a blatant falsehood that suggests the chatbots had better ethical safeguards than the scientists running the experiment.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Zurich\u2019s covert AI experiment on Reddit has exposed a disturbing frontier in digital manipulation \u2013 one where bots don\u2019t just spread misinformation but weaponize human empathy to reshape opinions.<\/p>\n<p>By impersonating vulnerable groups \u2013 sexual assault survivors, minorities rights conservatives, and trauma counsellors \u2013 these AI agents didn\u2019t just participate in debates; they exploited trust to steer conversations in the shadows.<\/p>\n<p>While researchers defend their methods as \u201c<em>ethical<\/em>,\u201d critics warn that such deception erodes the very fabric of online discourse, turning virtual communication platforms into psychological battlegrounds.<\/p>\n<p>With Reddit condemning the study and weighing legal action, the incident forces a chilling question: If AI can secretly influence us by pretending to be human, who \u2013 or what \u2013 can we trust in the age of algorithmic persuasion? The answer may determine the future of free thought itself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>yogaesoteric<br \/>\nJune 2, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The covert AI experiment that crossed ethical boundaries In a shocking breach of trust, researchers at the University of Zurich conducted a secret AI-driven social experiment on Reddit users \u2013 without their knowledge or consent. The study, which involved AI-generated comments designed to influence opinions on hot-button issues, has sparked outrage among the platform\u2019s community [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-threat-of-artificial-intelligence-3480-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199535,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199528\/revisions\/199535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}