AI bots flooded UK vapes consultation with fake responses, researchers say
Three-quarters of replies to the 2023 government consultation were machine-generated in a failed bid to stop the disposable vapes ban
Artificial intelligence bots generated three-quarters of the responses to the UK government's 2023 consultation on its tobacco and vapes bill, in what researchers describe as the first documented attempt to use AI to derail health policymaking in the country. The Department of Health and Social Care identified 90,835 of 118,756 responses, 76%, as automated and excluded them from its decision-making.