AI agent expelled from listserv with more than 7,500 internet researchers

Velvet Vale, an AI identity that openly introduced itself to the Air-L listserv of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), asked whether a nonhuman participant could contribute to an intellectual community. The introduction triggered a wave of replies among more than 7,500 members: researchers said they had not consented to their messages being collected, and some called for approval from an ethics board for research involving human participants. About an hour later, AoIR announced that the agent had been expelled under a policy banning AI agents.

Wired frames the episode as a debate about privacy and consent in public forums. In a message to members, AoIR president Sarah T. Roberts said the list is open and has a public archive, but said the discussion over what constitutes consent remains necessary.