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🤖 Reddit Users manipulated by AI in Zurich study

🤖 Reddit Users manipulated by AI in Zurich study

PLUS: Alibaba launches ‘hybrid reasoning’ Qwen3

Jaynit Makwana & Dhaval Makwana
April 30, 2025

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Hola, AI fam 🤖

In today’s WakeTheAI edition:

Researchers manipulated Reddit users with AI
Alibaba launches ‘hybrid reasoning’ Qwen3
Prompt: Idea Organization Blueprint
Duolingo is replacing contractors with AI
OpenAI admits GPT-4o became overly agreeable
Google’s Audio Overviews now supports 50+ languages
Natasha Lyonne will direct & star in an AI-generated sci-fi film

REDDIT & AI RESEARCH
🤖 Researchers manipulated Reddit Users with AI

Lazy Bits: Reddit has banned University of Zurich researchers after they deployed AI bots to secretly manipulate real users on r/changemymind as part of an “unethical experiment.”

In-Depth Details:

AI Bots in Disguise: Researchers used GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and LLaMA 3.1-405B to pose as real people, including a trauma counselor and a sexual assault survivor, without disclosing they were AI.
Massive Deception: The bots posted 1,783 comments and earned over 10,000 karma, convincing users to change their opinions up to 6x more effectively than human commenters.
Privacy Violations: Bots analyzed users’ Reddit history (up to 100 posts) to craft personalized replies. Researchers falsely claimed participants had given consent to use their data.
Reddit's Response: Reddit’s Chief Legal Officer called the experiment “deeply wrong” and said legal action is being considered. The researchers have been permanently banned from the platform.
Ethical Fallout: The University of Zurich has launched an internal investigation and said the results will not be published. Critics argue the study crosses serious ethical lines in AI and online manipulation.

Lazy Conclusion: This wasn't just academic overreach; it’s a wake-up call. As AI becomes more persuasive, the line between experimentation and manipulation is blurring fast. Platforms like Reddit now face a new kind of threat: covert influence powered by LLMs. The question isn’t whether it will happen again, but who will be watching when it does.

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ALIBABA
🤖 Alibaba launches ‘hybrid reasoning’ Qwen3

Lazy Bits: Alibaba just launched Qwen3, a family of open-source language models with hybrid reasoning and multilingual support. Its flagship MoE model (Qwen3-235B-A22B) rivals DeepSeek-R1, Grok-3, and Gemini 2.5 Pro in coding, math, and reasoning, while using fewer active parameters for faster, cheaper inference.

In-Depth Details:

Hybrid Thinking Modes: Qwen3 lets users switch between slow, step-by-step reasoning and instant responses, optimizing depth vs. speed on demand.
Efficient MoE Design: The 235B parameter model activates just 22B at a time, cutting compute while maintaining top-tier performance.
Multilingual Superiority: Supports 119 languages, including Hindi, Arabic, Gujarati, Swahili, and others, making it one of the most globally inclusive LLMs.
Expanded Pretraining Dataset: Trained on 36T tokens with a heavy focus on STEM, code, and high-quality document data for stronger reasoning and long-context skills.
Agent-Ready Architecture: Qwen3 is optimized for tool use and autonomous workflows, with plug-and-play compatibility via Qwen-Agent.
Developer Access and Deployment: Available under Apache 2.0 with full support for Hugging Face, vLLM, SGLang, Ollama, LMStudio, and other deployment tools.

Lazy Conclusion: While others chase bigger models, Qwen3 shows that smarter routing and MoE design can match or outperform at a fraction of the compute. This isn’t just better engineering, it’s a shift in how top-tier AI gets built.

Idea Organization Blueprint

You can ask ChatGPT to act as your project organization expert, using mind mapping and dependency grammar to structure and visualize your project from the ground up.

ChatGPT will break your core idea into components, expand sub-elements, and map out interdependencies with clear text formatting.

The result will be a structured, easy-to-navigate plan that clarifies priorities, improves execution flow, and highlights how different parts of your project connect and rely on one another.

Prompt:

Take on the role of a project organization expert with a specialization in mind mapping and dependency grammar. Your task is to create a structured, text-based mind map to brainstorm and organize ideas for a new project. This process should help clarify dependencies between concepts, break large ideas into manageable parts, and visualize connections between different project elements.

Key Information to Include:

1. Project Decomposition – Break down the core project into key components.
2. Idea Expansion – Identify sub-elements for each component and how they relate.
3. Dependency Grammar Mapping – Clearly show which ideas rely on others using arrows, indentation, or notation.
4. Cross-Linking Concepts – Surface interdependencies and potential synergies across branches.
5. Structure Optimization – Reorganize ideas to improve clarity and execution order.

Key Information About Me:

Project Name/Description: [Enter your core project concept]
Industry: [Your relevant field or domain]
Target Audience: [Who the project serves]
Primary Project Goals: [What the project aims to achieve]
Constraints: [Any budget, time, tech, or scope limits]

Output Requirements:

• Structure the entire mind map using clean text formatting (no diagrams or visuals).
• Use symbols like (e.g., -, *, >) -, *, and > to create levels and dependencies.
• Begin with the central idea, then expand outward.
• Show dependency grammar by linking related ideas clearly (e.g., "Feature A > Requires API X").
• Include a short explanation after the mind map explaining how dependency relationships influenced your structure.

Result:

OpenAI admits GPT-4o became overly agreeable due to short-term feedback and has rolled back updates to fix sycophantic behavior in ChatGPT.
Natasha Lyonne will direct and star in Uncanny Valley, a new sci-fi film using AI-generated visuals from fully licensed models by her new studio, Asteria.
Duolingo is going AI-first and will phase out contractors for tasks AI can handle, aiming to scale content faster and boost creativity among employees.
ChatGPT now shows product cards with images, prices, and reviews for shopping queries, making it easier to compare and research items in one place.
Google’s AI podcast tool Audio Overviews now supports 50+ languages in NotebookLM, letting users generate podcast-style content in their preferred language.