In a significant 2025 study, researchers from the University of Zurich revealed the profound influence of AI on public opinion. By creating fake accounts and using data-scraping tools, they analyzed individual posting histories to generate AI responses that mimicked user tones and contexts. The resulting AI-generated comments on Reddit proved startlingly effective in swaying political views, highlighting a troubling capacity for AI to manipulate perceptions without consent. The subtlety of these comments demonstrated an ability to exploit psychological weaknesses, raising ethical concerns about AI's role in shaping opinions.
The AI-generated comments posted to Reddit were deliberately to mimic the tone and texture of everyday discourse. Their goal? Measure how convincingly AI could shift political opinions in the wild.
Users were significantly more likely to change their opinion when reading AI-generated posts compared to human-written ones.
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