# The corruptive force of AI-generated advice

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.07536 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07536/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 0 of its 33 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Feb 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Human Decision-making is Susceptible to AI-driven Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07663/) (2025)
- [The Lock-in Hypothesis: Stagnation by Algorithm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06166/) (2025)
- [The influence of persona and conversational task on social interactions with a LLM-controlled embodied conversational agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.05653/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a trusted advisor in people's lives. A new concern arises if AI persuades people to break ethical rules for profit. Employing a large-scale behavioural experiment (N = 1,572), we test whether AI-generated advice can corrupt people. We further test whether transparency about AI presence, a commonly proposed policy, mitigates potential harm of AI-generated advice. Using the Natural Language Processing algorithm, GPT-2, we generated honesty-promoting and dishonesty-promoting advice. Participants read one type of advice before engaging in a task in which they could lie for profit. Testing human behaviour in interaction with actual AI outputs, we provide first behavioural insights into the role of AI as an advisor. Results reveal that AI-generated advice corrupts people, even when they know the source of the advice. In fact, AI's corrupting force is as strong as humans'.