AI bots flooded 2023 UK government consultation on disposable vapes ban
AI bots flooded a UK government consultation with tens of thousands of fake responses in a failed attempt to stop the ban on disposable vapes.
Three-quarters of all responses to the 2023 consultation on the tobacco and vapes bill were machine-generated, in what is believed to be the first coordinated attempt to use AI to derail health policymaking in the UK. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) used bot-detection methods to identify that 90,835 of the 118,756 responses it received, 76%, were submitted by bots.
All but two of those automated responses opposed Rishi Sunak's Conservative government's plan to ban disposable vapes. The submissions were "often duplicated many times and sent at high frequency from a small number of IP addresses", the DHSC said.
The bombardment appears to be the first documented instance of large-scale automated interference in a formal public health policy consultation.
Failed Manipulation Attempt
The attempt to manipulate the consultation outcome was disclosed in research published in the journal Tobacco Control. Despite the coordinated effort, the DHSC excluded all 90,835 automated responses from its decision-making process.
Maani warned that while this attempt was identified, "the threat is that future campaigns become harder to catch, and what we can't catch, we don't know about. Such campaigns are a threat because they raise the possibility of a handful of powerful interests looking like a mass movement."
Ban Passed Despite Interference
Keir Starmer's Labour government inherited the tobacco and vapes bill in 2024 and passed it into law, including the ban on businesses selling or supplying disposable vapes. The consultation had helped inform the government's decision to create a "smoke-free generation."
Evidence that AI bots have been used to swamp a Department of Health consultation is deeply concerning. Given the tobacco industry's history of seeking to undermine public health regulation, we need to be alert to the risk that technological advances can be used to further commercial interests around health policy and put safeguards in place.
Growing Concern About AI Manipulation
Azzurra Moores, associate director for information ecosystems at the thinktank Demos, described the attempt as "pretty alarming". She warned that "if a consultation can be swamped like this, it stops telling policymakers what the public actually thinks and undermines trust in the process."
The DHSC defended its response, stating that "robust controls" identified the attempt and "fake responses were removed". A spokesperson added: "We will remain alert to interference of this kind in future consultation processes, and we will not be deterred from doing what is necessary to promote healthier living."
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