Change.org AI tool reshaped petitions but didn't lift outcomes

An in-platform "write with AI" tool on Change.org substantially changed how petitions were written but did not make them more likely to succeed, according to a natural-experiment study published in Nature Human Behaviour.

Researchers at Cornell University and the University of Michigan — Isabel Corpus, Eric Gilbert, Allison Koenecke and Mor Naaman — collected 1.5 million petitions and ran a difference-in-differences analysis around the tool's introduction. The paper reports that "in-platform AI access substantially altered the lexical features of petitions and increased petition homogeneity but did not improve petition outcomes."

A secondary analysis of 4,611 repeat petition writers who authored petitions both before and after the tool launched produced a consistent pattern.

The authors conclude that while AI writing tools "can profoundly reshape online content, their practical utility for improving desired outcomes may be less beneficial than anticipated and introduce unintended consequences such as content homogenization." The paper landed on our radar via two researchers in our tracked directory who posted the link shortly after it went up.