Should people know they’re talking to an algorithm? After a controversial debut, Google now says yes

Psychology professor Michelle Drouin wanted to know how people would react if a chatbot could emulate a human. 

So she and her fellow researchers split 350 undergraduate students into three groups. One group was told they would be interacting with a bot. Another was told it was a real person. And the last was only informed after the interaction they had been communicating with an algorithm.