- cross-posted to:
- technology@lemmy.ml
- technology@piefed.social
An investigation into the AI bots that appeared on Reddit after they partnered with OpenAI.
Key points:
- The bots post a lot of links to products and services which appear to be adverts but are not marked as such.
- Many of these links are for Sam Altman’s World ID.
- Reddit added terms on AI advertising to their business page around the time the bots appeared.
- The bots also make up stories about dead mothers, depression, drug addiction, eating disorders, medical conditions and mental health issues.
There was some age-old article that talked about how early Reddit admins relied on bots to simulate participation in subreddits as a means of goosing engagement. This was billed as their secret sauce for running Digg into the ground (although Digg did a fantastic job of shooting themselves in the feet).