Published on 12, July, 2020
So, I'm slightly less grumpy than yesterday, as it's cooler.
Nevertheless, something else is bothering me, quite a lot.
Bots.
I know others of our Number are particularly concerned with this too.
Some bots are easy to spot as they leave links.
Others, make an innocuous post without a link but then later another post with a dubious link.
However ..... I've noticed another trend where a 'person' joins the forum to just post the once on a thread.
The post usually jars with me because although it sounds helpful, it doesn't sound to me like it comes from a real person and not an autistic person either.
The responses tend to me what I'd describe as 'glib'.
Question 1: Has anyone else noticed this?
It's happened on threads the last couple of days.
Do you think it could be bots too even though the response sounds relevant?
Also, I've occasionally wondered whether a 'person' is a bot even though they interact so I have another question.
Question 2: Is AI so well advanced now that bots can imitate humans in the way they respond on a thread and interact?
ie. they are not just posting in a vacuum but appear to be relating to you directly and your own responses.
I find some posts are obviously artificial, there's something about the use of language that makes them read as inauthentic, many of them are adverts with a bit of spiel to reel you in. I think many of these are obvious to all of us as they have 0 replies.
I've seen obvious attempts at political persausion, but not on this site, on others.
But yes they are annoying and I wish they'd stop, but I think few sites have the spohistication needed to stop bots, in fact you'd probably end up with a site full of bots as they'd be the only one's who knew how or could be bothered to get through any verification process.