Researchers Used AI to Manipulate Reddit Users 😱

Welcome to another edition of Horizon AI,

A group of researchers at the University of Zurich has drawn sharp criticism after conducting an experiment deploying AI-powered accounts to sway opinions on Reddit without consent.

Let’s check it out!

Read Time: 4.5 min

Here's what's new today in the Horizon AI

• Researchers Secretly Infiltrated a Popular Reddit Forum with AI Bots

• Meta Launches Stand-Alone AI App to Rival ChatGPT

• AI Tutorial: Talk directly to Perplexity and ChatGPT in the WhatsApp app

• AI Tools to check out

• The Latest in AI and Tech 💡

• AI Findings/Resources

AI News

AI RESEARCH

Researchers Secretly Infiltrated a Popular Reddit Forum with AI Bots

Researchers at the University of Zurich conducted an unauthorized experiment on the Reddit community r/ChangeMyView (CMV), using AI-powered accounts to test the persuasive abilities of LLMs in a real-world environment.

Details:

• Over four months, the AI bots posted 1,783 comments across different posts where users were discussing their views.

• On CMV, a “Delta” (∆) is awarded by the original poster to a commenter who has clearly changed their view—serving as direct proof of successful persuasion. The AI accounts received 137 of these Deltas.

• The bots achieved persuasion rates 3 to 6 times higher than humans and went completely unnoticed. Personalized AI was the most effective, influencing 18% of the users it engaged with.

• To achieve this, the bots employed deceptive tactics, including fabricating personal stories and identities—such as pretending to be trauma survivors or professionals—in order to convince users.

The University of Zurich acknowledged that the study violated site rules but argued that the societal importance of studying AI-driven persuasion justified their approach, claiming the risks were minimal and any harm minor. Despite this, the team ultimately decided not to publish the results.

Source

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META

Meta Launches Stand-Alone AI App to Rival ChatGPT

After integrating Meta AI into platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, the tech giant is now rolling out a standalone AI app that allows users to access Meta AI, similar to the ChatGPT app.

Details:

• Meta’s new app runs on Meta's latest Llama 4 model and can leverage data (optional) you’ve shared on platforms like Facebook and Instagram to provide tailored responses.

• You can also provide Meta with more information about yourself to remember for future conversations with its AI, similar to the ChatGPT memory feature.

• These personalized responses will initially roll out for users in the U.S. and Canada, while voice features are currently in testing and available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

• The app includes a “Discover” feed where users can share their AI interactions, such as quirky or fun responses, with friends.

• The company also introduced a LLama API, making its models more accessible to developers.

Meta is aiming to make its AI app stand out by utilizing years of user data to offer deeper personalization than rival apps, but with privacy concerns looming, it will have to balance personalization with user trust.

Source

AI Tutorial

Talk directly to Perplexity and ChatGPT in the WhatsApp app

Perplexity in WhatsApp:

1. Save the number: +1 (833) 436-3285 on your device and add it as a new contact.

2. Once that number is in your list of contacts, start a chat with Perplexity AI.

According to Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas, you'll be able to get "answers, sources, and image generation" from your WhatsApp chats, with "a lot more features coming soon."

ChatGPT in WhatsApp:

1. Save the number: +1 (800) 242-8478 on your device and add it as a new contact.

2. Search for the ChatGPT contact on WhatsApp and start a chat.

AI Tools to check out

🗣 Ztalk: Break language barriers in video calls with AI-powered real-time translation.

👨‍💻 Daytona: Secure and elastic infrastructure for running your AI-generated code.

⏳ Base44: Turn your ideas into products, in minutes.

📈 Aha: The world’s first multi-agent team 24/7 working on influencer marketing, with built-in scalability for any industry.

📹 Higgsfield: GenAI video platform designed specifically for creative professionals.

AI Findings/Resources

👉 Anthropic Economic Index: AI’s impact on software development

💡 AI can handle tasks twice as complex every few months. What does this exponential growth mean for how we use it?

📝 Google: Agents Companion, a white paper focused on key areas for production-ready AI agents, offering insights into multi-agent systems, agent evaluation techniques, Agent Ops, Agentic RAG, and more.

🤔 Here’s how to share AI’s future wealth

😱 Teens are using ChatGPT to invest in the stock market

The latest in AI and Tech

Google's new AI tools aim to make language learning easier on the go

Google has introduced three new AI-powered language learning experiments aimed at enhancing personalized learning experiences.

These tools are designed to assist users in acquiring new languages through context-specific lessons, colloquial speech practice, and real-world vocabulary identification. They can be accessed via Google Labs.

OpenAI explains what made ChatGPT so sycophantic

OpenAI has published a postmortem on the recent sycophancy issues with the new GPT-4o, a situation that became so problematic it forced the company to roll back last week's GPT‑4o update in ChatGPT.

Freepik releases F Lite, an open-source image model trained purely on commercially safe images

Developed in partnership with AI startup Fal.ai, F Lite comprises approximately 10 billion parameters and was trained over two months using 64 Nvidia H100 GPUs. It is available in two versions:​

• Regular: Prioritizes prompt accuracy and predictability.​

• Texture: Offers richer textures and more creative compositions, albeit with a higher propensity for errors.

DeepSeek releases open-source math model Prover-V2

​Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has released an updated version of its math-focused AI model, Prover. The new version, along with a distilled variant, was uploaded to the AI development platform Hugging Face.

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Gina 👩🏻‍💻