دراسة: 3 من كل 4 ردود على استشارة بريطانية عن السجائر الإلكترونية كتبتها بوتات ذكاء اصطناعيStudy: 3 in 4 responses to a UK consultation on disposable vapes were written by AI bots

In 2023 the UK held a public consultation on plans for a smoke-free generation and on restricting sales of disposable vapes. A new study in the journal Tobacco Control, published by BMJ Group, finds that three quarters of the responses were generated by AI bots.

The consultation received 118,756 responses, and the Department of Health and Social Care identified 90,835 of them (76%) as fraudulent using bot detection methods. All the bot responses targeted a single multiple-choice question and opposed restricting disposable vape sales. Once the bot responses were removed, 77% of valid respondents supported the restrictions, the opposite of what the unfiltered data would have shown.

The researchers say the scale and one-way direction of the responses suggest a coordinated campaign, and call it what appears to be the first documented case of large-scale automated interference in a formal public health consultation. They note that tobacco companies have tried to swamp earlier consultations with favourable responses, but stress they cannot say who was behind this campaign or what its aim was.

The study has limits: the researchers could not independently check the department's bot detection methods because they are not public, and the findings may not apply to other topics. The UK's Tobacco and Vapes Act became law on 29 April 2026, banning tobacco sales to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 and restricting the sale of disposable vapes.