What's that coming over the hill?.......is it a ......... no !

I accidentally saw that band in Barcelona when I happened to walk into a street festival.

I wonder if anyone still objects to bots being pointed out? I don't. Is that what you are talking about?

The risk being - a human user who has used AI to help form a post. Real people may end up alienated when trying to access support.

I personally don't want to waste time responding to a bot. So I simply engage far less now.

Unknown said:

The risk being - a human user who has used AI to help form a post. Real people may end up alienated when trying to access support.

And that's happened here in the past although I don't know whether the person was using AI but humans have  responded to a query intimating their possible botism.

I think it can be offputting to the person posting (they may leave because of it) and on the whole (I may be naive) I think that bots are easily spotted and then ignored.

Unknown said:

The risk being - a human user who has used AI to help form a post. Real people may end up alienated when trying to access support.

And that's happened here in the past although I don't know whether the person was using AI but humans have  responded to a query intimating their possible botism.

I think it can be offputting to the person posting (they may leave because of it) and on the whole (I may be naive) I think that bots are easily spotted and then ignored.

Unknown said:

I think that bots are easily spotted and then ignored.

Some of them, yes.....obviously.

Some of them, not so much....evidently.

The same things apply with tr oils.

I reported a spam bot type of thing the other day, some are quite easy to spot like this one trying to sell me somethng, but do we know if AI isn't being trained on sites such as this? I wonder if they are do they end up talking to each other rather than humans?

Unknown said:

There are a couple of users with always mega positive posts that seem unreal

....which are preferable to those which are purposefully being divisive.

Unknown said:

The other thing, is that some users may respond to posts not realising they are replying to a bot

I agree although I think bots don't tend to post questions/problems?

There are a couple of users with always mega positive posts that seem unreal but maybe I'm just a miserable old sod.

Unknown said:

Maybe we need a reverse Alan Turing test.

A rather worrying thought.

The other thing, is that some users may respond to posts not realising they are replying to a bot. So, to me, this is pertinent because - potentially (from my POV), actual human time may be wasted on something which has no meaning or value. It is this, which is at the centre of the issue, for me. I think.

Maybe we need a reverse Alan Turing test.

Maybe it's a sign of the times.

Maybe I need to get out more.

Moreover, I don't think this type of "old hat" medium, while I prefer it,  is what most people use these days. So it might be real humans are more likely to use more interactive media like tik tok, leaving more room here for bots.

I know what I'm comfortable with and what I know. I'll leave it at that.

Unknown said:

I think that bots are easily spotted and then ignored

Personally, if there is any ambiguity about whether a respondee is a bot or a human then I'd just wait and watch to see if they post again (rather than run the risk of unsettling a human who has just joined the forum).