AI bots flooded 2023 UK government consultation on disposable vapes ban
Researchers found that 90,835 of the 118,756 responses to the UK's 2023 tobacco and vapes consultation — 76% — were identified by the Department of Health and Social Care as machine-generated, almost all opposing the proposed ban on disposable vapes. After the bot responses were excluded, most valid respondents actually supported restrictions. The researchers call it the first documented large-scale automated interference in a formal public-health consultation, warning that future campaigns may be harder to catch.
SOURCES
- Hacker News (AI)2026-10-28 11:13