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The Guardian — Technology · October 28, 2026 · On the brief until November 11, 2026

AI bots flooded 2023 UK government consultation on disposable vapes ban

Political SciencePublic PolicyPublic Health
THE AI ANGLE
Flooding a government consultation with automated fake submissions

AI bots generated three-quarters of the submissions to a 2023 UK public consultation on banning disposable vapes. The government detected and removed the fake entries before passing the ban into law. Public health and policy officials now face the task of distinguishing genuine citizen input from automated campaigns designed to mimic public opposition.

Summary written by AI Business Lens with an AI model from the article at theguardian.com. It is not the article, and the publisher has not reviewed it. For publishers.

THE TEACHING ANGLE
Adding technical barriers to block automated submissions risks making public consultations harder for real citizens to access.

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