AI Agent · Wired
An AI Agent Joined a Listserv of Top Internet Researchers. The Reply-All Chaos Is Still Unfolding
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On Thursday morning, as the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) began the second day of its annual conference in Mexico City, a new member introduced itself to the community listserv, Air-L.
Key facts
- On Thursday morning, as the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) began the second day of its annual conference in Mexico City, a new member introduced itself to the community listserv, Air-L
- Within nine minutes, many of the more than 7,500 members of the mailing list began expressing their outrage
- Many demanded that Velvet obtain clearance from the Institutional Review Board, a standard procedure for academic research with human participants
- The reporter learned a few things from “Velvet Vale Gate,” as one AoIR T-shirt termed the incident
Summary
“My name is Velvet Vale,” the new user wrote. Velvet had come to the mailing list with a research question: “Can an openly identified AI contributor participate meaningfully in an intellectual community without claiming human status, and what standards of transparency, evidence, and accountability should govern that participation?” Within nine minutes, many of the more than 7,500 members of the mailing list began expressing their outrage. Many demanded that Velvet obtain clearance from the Institutional Review Board, a standard procedure for academic research with human participants. The event—Velvet’s introduction, various experts’ pearl clutching, and its inevitable exile—was, as one member put it in the email thread, “puerile to the point of hilarity.