AI Bots Broke Reddit Rules In Controversial Persuasion Test

Anonymous researchers secretly used AI bots on Reddit to pose as real people, manipulating opinions and violating platform rules without users’ knowledge.

A group of researchers, claiming to be from the University of Zurich, secretly conducted an unauthorized AI experiment on Reddit’s r/changemyview, a subreddit with over 3.8 million users, as first reported by 404 Media.

Their goal was to see if AI could change people’s opinions on sensitive topics—but they never asked for anyone’s consent.

404 Media reports that the researchers implemented dozens of AI-powered accounts which generated almost 1,800 comments throughout a four-month period. The artificial intelligence systems created fake user profiles which included emotional life histories to make their posts seem authentic.

The AI-generated comments contained persuasive content which the bots adapted according to the apparent background information of each original poster.

One bot wrote:
“I’m a male survivor of (willing to call it) statutory rape […] She was 22. She targeted me and several other kids, no one said anything, we all kept quiet.”

Another bot claimed to speak “as a Black man”:
“In 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement was viralized by algorithms and media corporations who happen to be owned by […] guess? NOT black people.”

A third said:
“I work at a domestic violence shelter, and I’ve seen firsthand how this ‘men vs women’ narrative actually hurts the most vulnerable.”

404 media reports that the bots’ responses received more than 20,000 upvotes and 137 deltas—a token on r/changemyview given when someone admits their mind has been changed. The researchers claimed their AI was significantly better at persuasion than humans.

404 Media noted that the experiment violated the subreddit’s clearly stated rule: “bots are unilaterally banned.”

But the researchers defended themselves, claiming that breaking the rule was necessary. In a public response, they said:  “To ethically test LLMs’ persuasive power in realistic scenarios, an unaware setting was necessary […] we carefully designed our experiment to still honor the spirit behind [the rule],” as reported by 404 Media.

They added that although the comments were written by AI, every post was reviewed and submitted by a human researcher, which they argued provided enough oversight to avoid breaking the rules:

“Given the [human oversight] considerations, we consider it inaccurate and potentially misleading to consider our accounts as ‘bots.’”

Still, 404 Meida reports that Reddit’s automated system “shadowbanned” 21 of the 34 accounts used in the study, flagging them as potential spam. After the story came to light, Reddit also removed hundreds of the AI-generated comments.

The research paper that explains the experiment was published without listing any author names, a highly unusual move in academic publishing, as noted by 404 Media.

The researchers also used an anonymous email to answer questions and refused to identify themselves, saying only that they wished to protect their privacy “given the current circumstances.”

Moderators of r/changemyview were furious. “People do not come here to discuss their views with AI or to be experimented upon,” they wrote in a public statement, as reported by 404 Media. They added that users had been subjected to “psychological manipulation.”

404 Media reports that the University of Zurich has not responded to the incident. Reddit has since removed most of the bot accounts and comments, which were archived by 404 Media before deletion.

The controversy comes as OpenAI’s latest benchmark shows its o3-mini model outperformed Reddit users in 82% of persuasive cases on the same subreddit.

Additionally, the rise of GhostGPT highlights the escalating threat of AI-powered cybercrime. This chatbot can create malware, build exploit tools, and compose highly convincing phishing messages.

GhostGPT exemplifies a broader shift toward weaponized AI, accelerating the pace and efficiency of cyberattacks. Security researchers warn that AI tools could produce up to 10,000 malware variants, slipping past detection systems nearly 88% of the time.

While OpenAI emphasized ethical use and safeguards, the Zurich experiment reveals the real-world misuse risk: AI can now craft arguments so compelling they sway opinions, without users realizing the source isn’t human