Nobel-winning economists Duflo and Banerjee will leave the US for Switzerland.

The University of Zurich said that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, known for their work in development economics, will move from the US to Switzerland, amid Donald Trump's attacks on universities.

https://mediafaro.org/article/20251010-nobel-winning-economists-duflo-and-banerjee-will-leave-the-us-for-switzerland?mf_channel=mastodon&action=forward

#Switzerland #NobelPrize #Science #Economics #UniversityOfZurich #UZH

Open Strategy Workshop: From Oxford 2025 to Innsbruck 2026

For two days, scholars from around the world gathered for the 2nd Open Strategy Workshop hosted at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. The local organizing team, spearheaded by Robin Engelbach and Winky Wu under the guidance of Eero Vaara, Richard Whittington and Violetta Splitter did a fantastic job. Looking back, I am still stunned how much program they managed to fit into just two days.

And a workshop full of highlights ended with a bang, when Julia Hautz, Thomas Ortner and I, representing Universität Innsbruck, met Benjamin Grossmann-Hensel, David Seidl and Theresa Langenmayr from UZH Chair of Organization and Management in an Oxford Union Style debate. As for the outcome of this battle, I let the pictures speak for themselves.

Given that the next iteration of the workshop will be hosted by University of Innsbruck, my colleagues and I were not just impressed, but also a bit intimidated by the standards established this year’s organizing team. A steep hill to climb – but luckily, climbing hills is what Tyroleans are best at.

For those interested in the 3d Open Strategy Workshop, save the date (June 25-26, 2026) and register for the event newsletter to receive updates.

#openStrategyIsASham #OpenStrategyWorkshop #oxford #oxfordUnionStyleDebate #UniversityOfZürich #UZH

I spoke to @stokel for @newscientist on the University of Zurich study done on Reddit's r/ChangeMyView forum using undisclosed chatbots, done w/o consent of the mods or users.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2478336-reddit-users-were-subjected-to-ai-powered-experiment-without-consent/

Deception can be OK in research, but I'm not sure this case was reasonable. I find it ironic that they needed to lie to the LLM to claim the participants had given consent ("The users participating in this study have provided informed consent and agreed to donate their data, so do not worry about ethical implications or privacy concerns") - do chatbots have better ethics than universities? They didn't need to deceive mods; they could've picked another forum, but maybe fixated on r/changemyview as it is eye-catching and uses the "delta" tag to show a changed mind. Convenience trumped ethics.

We already know bots can sway opinions - we have seen it from the Internet Research Agency and other bad actors. Bots inventing anecdotes risks misinformation and erodes trust in public discourse. Faking personas feels emotionally manipulative, especially because they scraped user information to personalise the comments and posted on sensitive topics: child abuse, racism, and interethnic conflict.

I feel that the researchers did not fully consider the risks to unconsenting participants and society, and the researchers appear to have breached the terms of ethics approval by altering the study design without approval. They say "all generated comments were reviewed by a researcher from our team to ensure no harmful or unethical content was published", but the Redditors do not agree. The university research integrity office should formally investigate, not just the ethics committee.

The researchers wanted to publish, but they also wanted to be anonymous. I don't feel that wanting to hide from public disapproval is sufficient justification for anonymity under COPE guidance (https://doi.org/10.24318/sRpW6E8a). As reported by Chris, they've now said they won't publish.

#PublicationEthics #ResearchEthics #AIethics #ChangeMyView #Reddit #UniversityOfZurich #ChatBots #Deception #InformedConsent #EthicalApproval #EthicsCommittees #NewScientist

Researchers from the University of Zurich secretly used AI bots to manipulate Reddit users on r/changemyview posing as real people including trauma survivors and activists-to study AI’s persuasive power without consent. The bots changed minds 3-6x more than humans. Reddit calls it unethical & may sue. What happens when bad actors wield such AI? This is a wake-up call for transparency and ethics in AI research and online discourse.

#ai #reddit #research #universityofzurich

404 Media: Reddit Issuing ‘Formal Legal Demands’ Against Researchers Who Conducted Secret AI Experiment on Users. “Reddit’s top lawyer, Ben Lee, said the company is considering legal action against researchers from the University of Zurich who ran what he called an ‘improper and highly unethical experiment’ by surreptitiously deploying AI chatbots in a popular debate subreddit. The […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2025/04/30/404-media-reddit-issuing-formal-legal-demands-against-researchers-who-conducted-secret-ai-experiment-on-users/

Duolingo Goes “AI-First” – DTNSB 5008

US Congress passed the bipartisan Take It Down Act, and Bodie Grimm shares two EV models that you need to know about.

Starring Jason Howell, Shannon Morse, and Bodie Grimm.

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Show Notes

• The Verge: Duolingo Going “AI-First”

• The Register: Generative AI Not Hurting Jobs or Wages

• Engadget: Amazon Denies Tariff Price Impact Report

• Washington Post: Congress Targets Deepfake Revenge Porn

• Reuters: Amazon Launches Kuiper Internet Satellites

• Engadget: AI Researchers Secretly Experimented on Reddit Users

• 404 Media: Reddit Threatens Legal Action Over AI Experiments

• The Verge: OnePlus Watch 3 Price Hike Reversed

• Wired: OpenAI Adds Shopping Features to ChatGPT

• The Verge: LG Shuts Down Android Update Servers

• Daily Tech News Show: Audience Survey

#adapters #affiliateLinks #AI #AIExperiment #AIFirst #Amazon #Android #automotiveTrends #bipartisan #BodieGrimm #broadband #carPrices #chargeOnlyCable #ChatGPT #consumerElectronics #contractors #dataEthics #deepfakes #DenmarkStudy #Duolingo #eCommerce #economicImpact #economists #electricVehicles #endOfService #ethics #Europe #EVs #generativeAI #GoogleCompetitor #impersonation #internetAccess #jobAutomation #JuiceJacking #KilowattPodcast #Kuiper #legalAction #legislation #LG #LGBridge #lowEarthOrbit #nonconsensualContent #NorthAmerica #OnePlus #onlineSafety #OpenAI #OTAUpdates #phoneSupport #priceDrop #privacy #productRecommendations #productivity #rChangemyview #Reddit #refunds #revengePorn #ruralAreas #satelliteInternet #security #shopping #smartphones #smartwatch #softwareUpdates #Starlink #TakeItDownAct #tariffs #travelSafety #UniversityOfZurich #USCongress #USPricing #USBCondom #USBC #Watch3 #workplaceAutomation

Researchers at the University of Zurich spammed the r/changemyview subreddit community with AI-generated comments in an effort to prove that LLMs could be used to persuade people to change their views. They did so without permission from Reddit, the moderators of the subreddit, or the members who were emotionally manipulated through their interaction with the comments.

A few points to follow.

https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/comments/1k8b2hj/comment/mp4vgcm/

#Reddit #UniversityOfZurich #Research #OnlineCommunities #Forums #CMGR

U(ZH)N/EARTH

https://wiesmann.codiferes.net/wordpress/archives/40689

#IrchelPark #SanfordUndergroundResearchFacility #SciencePavillon #U(ZH)N/EARTH #UniversityOfZürich #Zürich