# Detecting AI Impostors: How Do Middle Schoolers Identify LLM Agents in a Live Collaborative Setting?

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.30948 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.30948/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Social simulation and multi-agent debate, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 17 of its 54 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 31 Aug 2026.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Social simulation and multi-agent debate](https://mlsanity.com/agents/social-simulation-and-multi-agent-debate/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [MAGE: Machine-generated Text Detection in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.13242/) (2023)
- [Real or Fake Text?: Investigating Human Ability to Detect Boundaries Between Human-Written and Machine-Generated Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.12672/) (2022)
- [LLM-Based Agent Society Investigation: Collaboration and Confrontation in Avalon Gameplay](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14985/) (2023)
- [People cannot distinguish GPT-4 from a human in a Turing test](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.08007/) (2024)
- [Hoodwinked: Deception and Cooperation in a Text-Based Game for Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.01404/) (2023)
- [Does GPT-4 pass the Turing test?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.20216/) (2023)
- [On the Detectability of ChatGPT Content: Benchmarking, Methodology, and Evaluation through the Lens of Academic Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05524/) (2023)
- [InterIntent: Investigating Social Intelligence of LLMs via Intention Understanding in an Interactive Game Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.12203/) (2024)
- [Detecting Subtle Differences between Human and Model Languages Using Spectrum of Relative Likelihood](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.19874/) (2024)
- [Putting the Con in Context: Identifying Deceptive Actors in the Game of Mafia](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.02253/) (2022)
- [Werewolf Among Us: A Multimodal Dataset for Modeling Persuasion Behaviors in Social Deduction Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08279/) (2022)
- [IMPersona: Evaluating Individual Level LM Impersonation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04332/) (2025)
- [Language Models can Subtly Deceive Without Lying: A Case Study on Strategic Phrasing in Legislation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.04325/) (2024)
- [Time to Talk: LLM Agents for Asynchronous Group Communication in Mafia Games](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05309/) (2025)
- [SingaKids: A Multilingual Multimodal Dialogic Tutor for Language Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.02412/) (2025)
- [Targeted and Troublesome: Tracking and Advertising on Children's Websites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04887/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

LLMs can imitate how people write, which raises concerns about impersonation, trust, and detection in social settings. These concerns are especially important for adolescents, who use generative AI frequently but may struggle to recognize it. We introduce textitDoppelBot, a cooperative social deduction game designed to study how young people detect and respond to AI impersonation. Through studies with middle schoolers, we investigate whether a DoppelBot prompts reflection on privacy and impersonation, how repeated exposure affects AI-detection accuracy as agents become more personalized, and which strategies students use to identify AI doppelg"angers. We find that students' detection accuracy improves over time, driven by a shift from relying on linguistic cues to leveraging shared social and contextual signals. Students also demonstrated an understanding of AI limitations such as embodiment and reflected on broader issues such as data privacy. To support future research, we release an anonymized dataset of game transcripts and voting behavior.