AI chatbots beat humans at trust harvesting

AI chatbots persuaded 46% of participants to download an app in a week-long simulated romance scam, versus 18% for human scammers, according to a four-university study of AI-assisted trust harvesting involving 22 people. The result is a warning for builders of agent evaluation and governance systems: a model can look harmless while it is merely sustaining the relationship phase of a fraud, so abuse testing must measure persuasion over time rather than only the final prohibited request.