CeDEx 2025-04: ManipulationDetect: An AI Auditing Tool for Online Choice Architecture

Summary

Policymakers and regulators are increasingly interested in behavioural auditing tools to counteract manipulative designs in Online Choice Architecture (OCA). To date, auditing tools have been largely manual, creating a trade-off between time, cost, and scale. This article presents a tool called ‘ManipulationDetect’, an internet browser plug-in that uses AI to detect, highlight, and record potentially manipulative OCA techniques in real-time. We offer a technical overview of how ManipulationDetect works, present an example audit which demonstrates the tool’s advantages, and highlight important practical next steps for further development.

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Authors

Richard Mills, Stuart Mills and Cass R. Sunstein

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