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Computational social science

Experimenting on AI can (sometimes) teach us about ourselves

Nature Computational Science volume 5, pages 604–605 (2025)Cite this article

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A recent study sought to replicate published experimental research using large language models, finding that human behavior is replicated surprisingly well overall, but deviates in important ways that could lead social scientists astray.

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Fig. 1: An outline of the ‘silicon replication’ methodology described by Ning Li and colleagues.

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  1. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Austin van Loon & Zoe Heidenry

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  1. Austin van Loon
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  2. Zoe Heidenry
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Correspondence to Austin van Loon.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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van Loon, A., Heidenry, Z. Experimenting on AI can (sometimes) teach us about ourselves. Nat Comput Sci 5, 604–605 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00838-1

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