1. Online communities are never fair game for emotional exploitation. One of the absolute worst sins you can commit in an online community is to lie about something that is deeply harmful or meaningful to an individual.

Example: The researchers had an AI comment pretending to be a sexual assault victim.

2. Online communities are very open to research. But that begins with permission. I have approved and rejected many research requests in communities I have operated over the years.

3. Fake accounts are always fake accounts to me. Reddit was founded on bad principles, where Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman would create fake accounts, pretend to be real people, and allow others to form a relationship with those fake accounts so that they could profit.

I don't care whether it's AI or the site owner with 20 accounts, it's all dirty to me. When people make excuses for doing so, it is simply an effort to launder bad faith behavior. Don't fool around with people.

4. This is just a good overarching example of the biggest problem people have with LLMs: A lack of permission. It is pervasive in this space. A lack of permission or opt-in is disregarded in the interest of expediency and profit.

Reddit, the company, has engaged in efforts like this by signing deals with AI-focused companies to train on Reddit data - with no participation from the community members who contributed that data.

6. Manipulation in online communities has been a thing since the start. Whether it's government actors trying to sway public opinion, autocrats targeting the opposition, or Scott Adams pretending to be a fan of Scott Adams, it's been going on.

The only thing that AI changes is the believability, quantity, and speed at which this can happen. All of which, it has impacted dramatically.