Cited by 410Ethics and Social Impacts of AIArtificial Intelligence ApplicationsComputational and Text Analysis Methods

Can AI language models replace human participants?

Dillion, Danica, Tandon, Niket, Gu, Yuling, Gray, Kurt·2023·Trends in Cognitive Sciences

Abstract

Recent work suggests that language models such as GPT can make human-like judgments across a number of domains. We explore whether and when language models might replace human participants in psychological science. We review nascent research, provide a theoretical model, and outline caveats of using AI as a participant.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.tics.2023.04.008

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15 of 15 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • The more ambitious proposals of using AI to substitute for human participants or as surrogates for collective decision-making are clearly off the mark, at least right now.

    “As a result, the more ambitious proposals of using AI to substitute for human participants or as surrogates for collective decision-making (Dillion et al., 2023) are clearly off the mark, at least right now.”

    From Exploring the psychology of LLMs’ moral and legal reasoning (2024) · cites this paper as Dillion et al., 2023

  • LLMs can replicate classic experiments in cognitive science and the study of morality and replicate human behavior in the Prisoner's Dilemma and other behavioral games.

    “Still other studies indicate LLMs can replicate classic experiments in cognitive science and the study of morality and replicate human behavior in the Prisoner’s Dilemma and other behavioral games (21–24).”

    From Can Generative AI improve social science? (2024) · cites this paper as [22]

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Authors
Dillion, D., Tandon, N., Gu, Y., & Gray, K.
Affiliations
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (US)
Corresponding author
Gray, Kurt
Venue
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2023-07
Volume
27
Issue
7
Pages
597-600
ISSN
1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W4376117416
Cited by
405
References
14
Citations by year
2026: 112 · 2025: 147 · 2024: 120 · 2023: 26
FWCI
101.34
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Artificial Intelligence Applications
  • Social Sciences › General Social Sciences › Computational and Text Analysis Methods
Keywords
AI language models, GPT
MeSH terms
Artificial Intelligence, Humans, Judgment, Language

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