# AI bots flooded UK consultation on disposable vape ban in failed bid to block law

https://mins.news/en/item/118202

- The Guardian, 2026-10-27 22:30 UTC
- Politics
- Original: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/27/ai-bots-flooded-2023-uk-government-consultation-disposable-vapes-ban

> Researchers found that bots generated 90,835 of the 118,756 responses to the UK’s 2023 tobacco and vapes bill consultation, with nearly all automated submissions opposing the disposable-vape ban. The Department of Health and Social Care excluded them, and the ban later became law. Researchers called it the first documented large-scale automated interference in a UK public health policy consultation.