AI bots flooded 2023 UK government consultation on disposable vapes ban

Research published in Tobacco Control by Dr Nason Maani and Prof Anna Gilmore found that 90,835 of the 118,756 responses (76%) to the 2023 "smoke free generation" consultation were machine-generated, with all but two of the automated responses opposing the disposable vapes ban. The DHSC said the submissions were often duplicated and sent at high frequency from a small number of IP addresses, excluded the automated responses from decision-making, and the ban later passed into law under the Labour government. The researchers described it as appearing to be the first documented instance of large-scale automated interference in a formal public health policy consultation.