{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T17:52:40Z","timestamp":1792086760268,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":13,"publisher":"National Academy of Sciences","issue":"42","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1792022400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.pnas.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,20]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Recent research and advances in LLMs have led to widespread concern that AI agents could pose as human online survey-takers. However, it remains unclear how prevalent AI agents are on survey research platforms and how to effectively detect AI agents. We validated a series of AI detection tests that effectively separated verified-human participants from both prompted commercial and purpose-built AI agents. Using these tests, we collected surveys on seven online platforms and find wide variation in rates of respondents failing AI tests, ranging from 6 to 41% across platforms (compared to a 2.4% false-positive rate for in-person human participants). We further demonstrate that undetected AI agents can impact the results of online surveys. Our findings suggest that while there is an urgent need for AI detection tests and consistent, systematic monitoring of data quality on online platforms, some platforms currently appear to provide data with a low rate of AI agents.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2606460123","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T17:37:33Z","timestamp":1792085853000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.cm10313","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Estimating the threat of AI-agent responding across online survey platforms"],"prefix":"10.1073","volume":"123","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8315-9687","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Grace","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/024mw5h28","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Marketing, University of Chicago Booth School of Business","place":["Chicago"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-9887-7053","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert","family":"Walatka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/024mw5h28","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Behavioral Science, University of Chicago Booth School of Business","place":["Chicago"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6548-366X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stephanie Y.","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/001c2sn75","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Marketing, London Business School","place":["London, United Kingdom"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Alexander K.","family":"Moore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/02mpq6x41","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Marketing, University of Illinois Chicago College of Business Administration","place":["Chicago"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4390-386X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Oleg","family":"Urminsky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/024mw5h28","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Marketing, University of Chicago Booth School of Business","place":["Chicago"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8493-880X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kiant\u00e9","family":"Fernandez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/046rm7j60","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Psychology, University of California","place":["Los Angeles"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-0684-6305","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrea","family":"Low","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/046rm7j60","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Behavioral Decision Making Area, Behavioral Decision Making Area, Anderson School of Management, University of California","place":["Los Angeles"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2700-7427","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jonathan E.","family":"Bogard","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01yc7t268","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Organizational Behavior, Olin Business School, Organizational Behavior, Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis","place":["St. Louis"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Craig R.","family":"Fox","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/046rm7j60","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Department of Psychology, University of California","place":["Los Angeles"]},{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/046rm7j60","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"Behavioral Decision Making Area, Behavioral Decision Making Area, Anderson School of Management, University of California","place":["Los Angeles"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"341","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_1_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/d41586-026-00386-2"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2518075122"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_2","unstructured":"B. Hickey AIs could turn opinion polls into gibberish. The Economist 2 December 2025. https:\/\/www.economist.com\/united-states\/2025\/12\/02\/ais-could-turn-opinion-polls-into-gibberish. Accessed 20 September 2026."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/d41586-026-00221-8"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.2537420123"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_2","unstructured":"A. Low K. Fernandez J. Bogard C. R. Fox \u201cModern threats to online surveys: An interactive workshop on bots repeat respondents and data quality checks\u201d in Society for Judgment and Decision Making Conference S. Saccardo B. Dietvorst M. Jung Eds. (Denver CO 2025). https:\/\/kiante-fernandez.github.io\/sjdm-data-validation-workshop\/."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_7_2","unstructured":"L. H. Mee Prolific: Setting standards for authentic human data collection. Prolific 17 September 2025. https:\/\/www.prolific.com\/resources\/prolific-setting-standards-for-authentic-human-data-collection. Accessed 06 February 2026."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3758\/s13428-024-02357-9"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_9_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3685527"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_10_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tics.2024.01.011"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_11_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-025-09215-4"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_12_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"C. O\u2019Grady Researchers claim their AI model simulates the human mind. Others are skeptical. Science News 2 July 2025. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.z6czuhe. Accessed 20 September 2026.","DOI":"10.1126\/science.z6czuhe"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_13_2","unstructured":"G. Zhang Data and materials for \u201cEstimating the threat of AI-agent responding across online survey platforms\u201d. Open Science Framework. https:\/\/osf.io\/x7jkh\/. Deposited 28 August 2026."}],"container-title":["Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1073\/pnas.2606460123","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]],"date-time":"2026-10-15T17:37:43Z","timestamp":1792085863000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2606460123"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]]},"references-count":13,"journal-issue":{"issue":"42","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,20]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1073\/pnas.2606460123"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2606460123","relation":{},"ISSN":["0027-8424","1091-6490"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0027-8424","type":"print"},{"value":"1091-6490","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,15]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2026-03-01","order":0,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-08-06","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}},{"value":"2026-10-15","order":3,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}],"article-number":"e2606460123"}}