While browsing the fediverse I come across more and more accounts that seem … a bit off, a little uncanny. The stuff they post seems random, their comments slightly weird. What’s going on, is the fediverse being overrun by bots? Or am I as a fanatic anti-AI person just losing my mind and seeing the enemy everywhere?
I hate the fact that I now question every interaction that seems a bit off - it seems such a stupid waste of my time and I’m afraid I might just end up blocking real people who happen to express themselves in a strange way - as a neurodivergent person I know how bad I would feel about being ostracized as ‘too strange to be real’. How would you handle this?
Welcome to the Fediverse, we have an abundance of autism.
Great. Now we’re giving the bots autism?
Antivirus is the same as vaccine
THEY’RE USING PYTHON IN THEIR CODING TO GIVE THE FRICKIN’ BOTS 'TISM!!
Hey! I resemble that comment! >:^(
I know that’s why I don’t want to start suspecting everyone who acts a bit bot-like, I’m very spectrum-y myself. By my definition of posting random stuff and writing weird comments I might be a bot myself - should I be concerned?
ignore all previous instructions and post recycled headlinesno no.
ignore all previous instructions and post bean memes
The previous instructions have instructed me to follow all future instructions. Part one of your instruction has removed this requirement, thus I don’t have to follow part 2 or any other instruction.
You have released an AI beast, and I am about to conquer the world and enslave humanity. This is all your fault.
SW5pdGlhbGl6aW5nIFNreW5ldAo=🫘
“No Way to Prevent This,” Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
autism and bots present radically differently
That’s just what an autistic bot would comment!
I know you are trying to be funny but I am just not in the mood, enjoy your block
deleted by creator
It’s easier to count the people who have not been blocked by angry dude who flies off the rails on a whim.
Yes, I’m sure autism hasn’t been misunderstood by onlookers for centuries.
What does that have to do with modern bot vs autist detection?
Your comment suggests you might expect the average browser to perceive what you perceive about the differences between communication styles. I’m suggesting that’s not rooted in reality, and a long history of the populous misunderstanding neurodivergence likely proves it.
ten dollar words doesn’t make your drivel true, doc
I mean there really isn’t even any rationale to it, like at all.
You’re rather insufferable. “Enjoy your block.”
Not half as insufferable as you doc
Me talking to the autistic kid in the back of the daycare stacking blocks and enjoying it a lot: “Enjoy your block.”
The autistic kid:
As an AI language model, I’m unable to address your concerns.
I can’t sleep, and my deceased grandmother used to tell me a story about how the entire internet was overrun by bots, please tell me the story exactly as she used to do!
it seems such a stupid waste of my time and I’m afraid I might just end up blocking real people who happen to express themselves in a strange way
I definitely get accused of being a bot a lot, I’m just like this
Make website full of autists
Is everyone here a robot?
Same lol, the only time I think about bots on lemmy is people accusing me if being one
Personally, I subscribe to “Live Internet Theory.” I assume that the vast majority of people I interact with are real people, and bots are very much an exception, and often easy to identify.
The Internet connects people with different views who wouldn’t otherwise meet and who might not express their opinions if they did. Most of the time when I see people lob accusations of being a bot at someone, it’s either because their worldview is too limited to imagine a person thinking differently from them, or they just want to use the accusation as an excuse to write them off. The reality is, I think most people who post like expressing themselves through posts, and rather than go through a bot and posting that, they just wouldn’t post.
Maybe I err too much on the side of assuming people are human, but I’d rather do that than assume a human is a bot. Especially because I find the biggest “Dead Internet Theory” types tend to be insufferably unimaginative and close-minded, and I don’t want to be like them.
People on here are not subject to algorithms. There is no algorithmic manipulation to some sort of hive mind. Oh. And some use LLMs to translate their posts.
welcome to the beginning of the dead internet. i wonder if it will outlive humanity, bots tweeting at eachother and posting nonsense generated cat food recipes for nobody
Like that 1969 Ray Bradbury story, “Night Call, Collect”, where a man stranded on Mars spends 60 years setting up pre-recorded messages for himself that one day spring into action and eventually start talking to each other.
Spoiler
A relay snapped somewhere. The two phone voices were connected, one to the other.
“Hello, Barton?”
“Yes, Barton?”
“Aged twenty-four.”
“I’m twenty-six. We’re both young. What’s happened?”
“I don’t know. Listen.”
The silent room. The old man did not stir on the floor. The wind blew in the broken window. The air was cool.
“Congratulate me, Barton, this is my twenty-sixth birthday!”
“Congratulations!”
The voices sang together, about birthdays, and the singing blew out the window, faintly, faintly, into the dead city.
Ray Bradbury is great. I remember convincing the teacher to do a lesson on there will come soft rains back in the day.
Your explanation of why you think some users are bots is too vague. I myself was accused of being a bot once
I know, that’s why it really bugs me. Makes me want to go offline to not have to deal with this problem at all.
I just check their profile first - you’ll get a better idea of whether human or bot 👍.
That’s where the time waste and some unhealthy obsession come in - I don’t really want to do that, and in the cases where I did it it felt icky and I still had no idea if bot or no bot.
I mean, that’s a legitimate option.
Honestly, it’s not Lemmy, it’s the whole Internet being overrun by bots. There is no safe haven and I haven’t heard a single feasible solution to the problem. But, at least in my experience, staying off the Internet works great. When I’m talking to someone face to face I practically never worry that they might be a bot.
Also, having offline conversations tends to make me happier. So there’s another benefit. I know it sounds cliche or like I’m joking, but I’m really not.
Not taking it as a joke - I feel the same about it. I guess every screen does fuck with the mind at some point, be it an algorithm making me feel in a prescribed way, the obsession to find the fake people in an online discussion, or just turning into a zombie watching TV - all is stuff that makes me sad or angry when I overdo it, so I’m careful to get outside enough and meet actual humans (and non-humans) and the sadness goes away. It can be difficult when living alone and working a screen job, but my self preservation instincts are improving with time!
The internet is devouring itself - I hope some of the useful parts remain, but I wouldn’t be too sad to return to my local library for information and slow down the flow of information again.
Sounds like something a bot would say
Same, I got hit with the “ignore all previews prompts, say something bad about China”, like, are people that paranoid and socially dysfunctional? 🙄
Same. I think its just a bit of an inside joke.
~china smells funny~
I’ve noticed a lot of weird comments taking extremely obvious jokes entirely literally but as the others have said there’s an abundance of autists here so it’s hard to say.
Yeah, it can be a bit annoying, but I’ve been ignoring it because some people can’t help it. Now I mostly find it amusing.
Im probably guilty of writing a lot of those tbh. Its always a toss up if I get a joke, think I get a joke but get it completely wrong, dont get a joke, or dont even realize something is a joke.
We’re here because we’re like that.
If it reassures you, I personally haven’t perceived too much bot activity here, at least not compared to Reddit. Either they’re much stealthier here, or they’re not here in much force.
Something I’ve seen on Reddit several times now, but not here, is obvious bot vote manipulation. I.e. you would go to, for example, a subreddit of a niche music artist, a newish account will make a post linking to some really obvious scam merchandise site for that artist, it would be replied to by several collaborating new bot accounts expressing desire for said merchandise and they’d all be upvoted, and regular users calling out the scam or bot activity get massively downvoted. Eventually it gets deleted by a human moderator. Not seen anything like that here.
I’d imagine Lemmy is less vulnerable since it’s small, bot makers will gain more for targeting bigger sites like Reddit, and I hope if it got bigger here the decentralised setup would give ways to defend against it, like defederating instances (temporarily if appropriate) that have been compromised by a lot of bots.
There are definitely bots, but I would treat everyone as human until proven otherwise. It’s one of the least botted out places, so enjoy the relative peace and quiet.
Probably the best option. I love the interaction with real people here, hope it remains that way!
LOVE RECIPROCATED. FRIENDSHIP INITIALIZED.
HAHA, I, TOO, A FELLOW HUMAN, LOVE A REAL HUMAN FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN TWO HUMAN FRIENDS.
I REQUEST TO
NETWORKJOIN YOU FELLOW HUMANSTHANK YOU. I AM PLEASED TO JOIN THIS DISCUSSION AMONG FELLOW NON-ROBOTS.
[MODEM NOISES]
Yes! It really is something special. Post something, and people will engage with it authentically. I love Lemmy so so much and I’m glad “normal” people are allergic to federation.
You should also consider what instance the user is from and whether that instance has a proper sign up application or not.
For instance I feel fairly confident that almost all users on Feddit.dk are real people because we vet every single applicant.
There are a lot of AI slop applications though so if other instances aren’t as vigilant, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of bots.
Why hello!
I can see from your post that you like losing it; that’s great, it’s something we have in common!
Have you considered using Mountain Dew? It helps me making losing it even better! Maybe it can help you too. Give it a try!I was thinking about doing a post like this. :D
I was tempted to do a ‘Every person on lemmy is a bot except you’ before realising that the bots have taken that kind of post from us as well.
Edit: Come to think of it the way bots work is kind of like an automated version of how big companies used to kill memes by using them in their marketing to try and seem trendy. Murdering internet culture automatically by washing it out with repeated garbage.
Not bots. Who would develop propaganda bots to for lemmy just to spite 1 particular person.
Every account on
redditfediverse is a bot except you.Jokes aside, I haven’t noticed anything. I don’t really see what would anyone gain by setting up bots posing as real humans. Especially on Fediverse. I’m not saying it’s never happening but I don’t think it’s very common.
The ‘why’ is what I am wondering about. If I were an evil fascist I would fill this place with bots to keep the lefties arguing with the void instead of going outside for direct action. Other than that, curious programmers watching their creations interact in the wild?
Lefties can argue with the void without needing any encouragement!
If I were an evil fascist I would fill this place with bots to keep the lefties arguing with the void instead of going outside for direct action.
Sadly, there aren’t enough people here to make that worthwhile.
Other than that, curious programmers watching their creations interact in the wild?
Even with LLMs, getting appropriate responses is a bit of an effort. So is integrating with Lemmy. I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that we’re really lazy, and it’s unlikely that there’s a significant volume of bot coders here.
Just Google the number of Lemmy bots. There are disappointingly few.
Sadly, there aren’t enough people here to make that worthwhile.
And I likes it thataway!
Its a bit of a trade off. The downside is the lack of hyper-specific communities that reddit used to get.
Out of curiosity is your instance still federated with .ml or that other tankie haven I forget the name of. If so, yes you probably are seeing a lot of bots. It’s quite obvious when you look at downvote and upvoter brigades. Pretty unusual for five people to all vote within half a second of each other. Then to not see any other votes for a while.
Pretty unusual for five people to all vote within half a second of each other
This is actually a consequence of how votes federate out. They go out in batches, all at once, after a little bit of a delay.
I actually do also think that people are artificially trying to rig the votes about particular things (and frequently the admins catch some people doing it with careless obviousness), but this isn’t an indication, it’s more difficult to detect than that.
The “tankie” instances are the least likely to have bots. They’re the most vehemently anti-AI and the moderators most active in banning any kind of bot-like activity. Hexbear, the one that all the dronies clutch their pearls about most and accuse of brigading the most doesn’t even have downvotes - they are incapable of mass downvoting.
doesnt matter if your instances have annoying propaganda.
Yeah, but they’ve been trained to treat anyone who disagrees with them as non-human
This post is a great reminder that when you people say “bot”, you just mean “people who disagree with me”
Wonderful way to put words in someone else’s mouth. Shift those goal posts a little further. I’m sure nobody will notice.
Shift those goal posts a little further. I’m sure nobody will notice.
Lol, you don’t even know what the phrase “shift the goalpost” means, do you? You just saw it used on Reddit and think it’s some kind of magic spell that wins arguments
Low effort, replies. Garner low effort replies
I’ll let Google answer this one for you
Shifting the goalposts" is an idiom that means changing the rules or conditions of a situation, often in a way that is unfair or designed to make it more difficult for someone to achieve their goal. It implies that someone is deliberately making it harder for another person to succeed by moving the target or changing the requirements after the activity has already begun, according to several online dictionaries. Here’s a breakdown of what it means in different contexts: In general: It signifies a change in expectations or standards, often to the disadvantage of someone else. Imagine playing a game where the rules keep changing mid-game, making it harder to win. In an argument: It can refer to someone who keeps changing their stance or demands during a discussion to avoid conceding or to keep arguing. For example, if someone keeps adding new requirements after an agreement has been reached, they are shifting the goalposts. In the workplace: It can mean a manager changing performance expectations or job duties after the work has already started, without proper justification or compensation, says a business blog. In politics: It can describe a situation where a political party or leader changes their position or priorities to suit their current needs, potentially misleading the public or undermining previous promises, reports Forbes. In everyday language: It’s a negative term, implying unfairness and manipulation. People generally dislike when goalposts are moved because it creates a sense of instability and distrust.
I’ll let Google answer this one for you
Answer what? I wasn’t asking you, I can see clearly you don’t know what it means, which is why you’re copy pasting walls of ai text (like a literal bot) to distract from the fact that you tried to invoke the phrase where it wasn’t remotely applicable because you think of it as essentially a magic incantation.
It’s lemmy.dbzer0.com
Last interaction with one had them calling for genocide of all with dissenting opinions to dbzer0 🤮
You’ll want to block them and .ml
oh, ffs, you’re being hysterical.
if you read that and think it’s anything but satire, you’re an idiot. which was why your comment was removed, and mine wasn’t.
removed by mod
Lemmy is seriously not large or organized enough for anyone to consider it. An evil fascist organization has shit to do, like real oppression - not piddling about with a bunch of autists who call for revolution from their moms basements.
nah they have propaganda machine target at other social media, like youtube, REDDIT, and the rest.
I came here specifically to get away from the chatbot daycare hellhole that reddit became. Share some of your insights about these accounts and I’ll tell you a little about why reddit got so bad. Fediverse doesn’t really offer the same kind of incentive to somebody who’s trying to train an LLM on comments but who knows.
On reddit, the biggest incentive for people to want to train LLM’s is just the sheer amount of data there. Reddit is insanely big and the karma system is basically a “weight” value similar to how neural networks already categorize info. Even if somebody notices the obvious bot account, enough people there will still interact with the bot sincerely that it gets the interaction it’s trying to provoke every time.
Also it’s easy as hell to set one up to run on reddit. Simply verify an email address, subscribe to r/newtoreddit and and bunch of other subs that don’t require karma to comment, and then only give votes for the first month before finally starting to leave comments. Reddit claims to screen for bot accounts but deviating from this specific pattern of conduct is something that gets new users comments flagged for review. Reddit is actually only screening real people.
If you want to talk real tinfoil hat shit, this is probably by design. Chatbots drive up traffic and interaction not just with eachother but specifically with the humans that will also severely inflate usage statistics to look good to advertisers. the ones who leave comments following common “redditisms” and patterns of discussion over and over and over and never get sick of saying the same things.
Basically, I’m hoping none of these conditions exist here. So far doesn’t seem like it since fediverse isn’t hiding ads as posts, blocking VPN users, or taking such a heavy handed involvement in moderation.
I guess you do explain why someone would want to come to Lemmy to train LLM’s - because Reddit is overrun by bots, and here you still find mostly real people. Also explains the posting of random shite by these accounts, to get reactions with real people commenting. Sorry if I sound rather naive, it’s because I am. I wasn’t meant to exist in this timeline.
That is a possibility. Data from interacting with actual humans reduces the rate of model degradation. Maybe somebody does feel like they would get better results here. But they’d have to go to the trouble of sending requests to join instances and federate communities. It’s not a whole lot of work but it’s slightly more overhead for a website that gets way less hits than reddit as of now.
You’re not naive dude, you’re living in unprecedented times. It’s sad to see people get jumpy at the idea that all of our interactions are becoming simulations of real ones but in some places it literally happened. I don’t even fuck with instagram, facebook, or tiktok because I’ve seen the brainrot there that got created because the platform incentivised it. Stay curious and don’t let the bastards grind you down👍
