[HamsterDan]

What's to stop any malicious actor from posting these same comments?

The fact that Reddit allowed these comments to be posted is the real problem. Reddit deserves far more criticism than they're getting. They need to get control of inauthentic comments ASAP.

[AlienRobot]

I'm pretty sure Reddit as a company couldn't care less it's a bot or AI posting so long as it gets people to upvote it. People say they don't like it, but they keep posting on Reddit instead of leaving.

[sumedh]

The advertisers would care if their ads dont bring genuine users to their product and dont buy their product.

[Draiken]

You're giving a lot of credit to marketers when they usually spend a budget without care and then report they had x views/likes/impressions taunting that as a success.

It's a bullshit oriented industry with almost zero scrutiny.

[xnx]

Yes. A lot of agencies get paid as a percentage of spend. There's very little concern or effort put in to true ROI.

[93po]

even before LLMs reddit had a problem with inauthentic comments - astroturfing is a very real and proven thing, and even hillary's campaign paid people to post online, including on reddit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correct_the_Record

[maronato]

This is supposed to be scientific research, not some random malicious actors.

[nearbuy]

It's research on whether malicious actors could use LLMs to persuade people. If you restrict the tricks it can use, what is the research telling you? How nice, honest people might persuade Redditors by secretly using LLMs? How malicious actors might persuade people if they never lied?

[000ooo000]

>What's to stop any malicious actor from posting these same comments?

Nothing, but that is missing the broader point. AI allows a malicious actor to do this at a scale and quality that multiplies the impact and damage. Your question is akin to "nukes? Who cares, guns can kill people too"