We have a Problem Here Folks. AI imitating humans here in this place.

I just thought I would resurrect this, just for a moment......to give a quick update.......it has been 3 weeks of research.

My heart is hardening to the fact that WE HAVE A PROBLEM HERE FOLKS.

Some of you may have noticed that I make (even weirder and more obscure than my normal) responses to some "people" who post here, in certain circumstances.  I do this to try and understand / probe my hypothesis that there is A LOT of AI / bots floating around in this place.

My interim conclusion is that there is, definitely, A LOT of AI / bots posts floating around in this place.  Presumably, this is therefore the case EVERYWHERE.

Generally, I get the impression that many people don't really care, one way or the other.....but I do.  If it is happening here in this relatively unimportant "backwater" place, then it must be absolutely rife in places where opinions are formed en mass.

All is not what it seems in the world.....all I ask, is that WE all remain aware of that fact.  "Jeremy for Leeds" is just as likely to be 0010010110000101010001110, operated by "Polling Corp Inc", let loose upon us to do whatever "Polling Corp Inc" hopes it will do.

Human rule is not necessarily brilliant (at all)........but an AI army serving the bidding of just a few humans, is defo worse.....in my opinion.

This is why I no longer use twitter / X.

The majority of the posts there are automated in one way or another by people whose intentions are entirely bad.

I have seen far fewer suspicious posts here but those I have seen (including some you responded to) read like someone whose first language probably isn’t English and with motives that are hard to understand (although that latter point also applies to one or two difficult real human members of this forum).

Yea - I don't mind too much about the "unconvincing" / "pointless" bots.......but the whole point, my dude, is that the foooking scary ones ARE the ones that you can't readily spot.....who seem legit....but who are not.

From a pure "reading" of what they post, I would NOT (and have been proved to not) be able to spot them as bots/AI.  It is possible to detect them, using a form of AI that I like to call autism+focus+dedication.....but you have to be present for that cause.....and it takes time to spot the patterns.....but there are patterns.

What worries me (slightly) is that this clunky NAS forum (that I now understand well) is going to change soon to a 'new and improved' version.......and I'm not sure I can be ars ed to observe it long enough to work out how I can spot the fake/bad actors within that new framework (whatever that may prove to be.)

I don't feel the "need" to be here.......but I REALLY felt that need when I first came, and if I can, I want to pay-it-forward......in memory of the likes of Plastic (God rest his soul.....he helped me, without EVER communicating directly with me.)

However, self-preservation / a propensity to avoid agg (unless I can see the foooooking whites of their eyes) is hard wired into me.......and so I am likely to leave.....like everyone (except the true jewels of this place) have done before me.

It would be sad......for the genuine newbies....if the exodus continues.....and I note that the cordial and warm welcomes have already fallen away to a trickle.  I fear that "community" and "support" is being exterminated by "tribalism" that is being brought about by effective, intrusive and illusive AI / bots.

I fear, for the souls of man......and the upcoming generation......but perhaps that is what all "older" people say!

all the more important that we circle the wagons and stay.

all the more important that we circle the wagons and stay.