Researchers at the University of Zurich apologize
Research on Reddit
Study with counterfeits: Researchers from the University of Zurich make a back
Researchers from the University of Zurich wrote answers to comments on Reddit as part of a secret study. After a lot of criticism, the researchers now do without a publication of the results.
The researchers at the University of Zurich used controversial methods.
Then the moderator team showed itself in Thread dissatisfied with the hidden research. The users also criticize the project: « Sad, such sloppy, unethical research, » writes a user, « incredibly disappointing, » comments another.
Results are not published now
Now the researchers have reacted. The University of Zurich announced on request: « The researchers decided on their own initiative not to publish the research results. »
Apparently the study was controversial from the start. The University of Zurich said that the ethics committee of the Philosophical Faculty had pointed out the researchers that the study in question for the Commission is the greatest challenge (from four studies on AI). Therefore, the Commission called three recommendations:
First: « The chosen approach should be justified more. » Second: « The participants should be informed as far as possible. » Third: « The rules of the platform should be fully followed. »
However, the researchers disregarded Reddit’s community guidelines on artificial intelligence that forbid the use of undeclared AI content. Thus, the researchers of the third recommendation of the ethics committee did not follow. The researchers also disregarded the second point: so they intentionally informed the users and the team of moderator of the subreddits, like the researchers in Subreddit Explain yourself: « We are aware that we have violated the community rules of the AI generated comments with our experiment. »
Why did the researchers do the experiment anyway? They believe that, given the great social importance of this topic, it was essential to carry out such a study, even if this meant disregarding the rules.
The assessments of the ethics committee of the Faculty of Philosophy are recommendations that are not legally binding, according to the university in the opinion. « The researchers themselves are responsible for the implementation of the project and the publication of the results. »
More binding rules
Due to the events, the ethics committee of the Faculty of Philosophy wants to formulate even more binding recommendations towards scientists in the future. In particular, the rules of the communities on the platforms, on which experimental studies are carried out, should be taken into account.
The responsible bodies at the University of Zurich have knowledge of the incidents and will now process them in detail.
