this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I can't tell ... How can you tell?

[–] Jordan117 156 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

It's something I started noticing shortly before the API stuff. Bot accounts using ChatGPT to respond to random posts and comments. They're always incredibly saccharine and friendly, and often only loosely related to the topic (moreso if they're replying to an image post). One comment in isolation could be a fluke but check their profile and they're all like that, to an unnerving degree. I imagine they get sold off to spammers once they get enough karma. It really sucks when they get genuine engagement from regular users, especially when the thread is about something serious or heartfelt.

[–] pexavc 49 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah noticed it too. For some of them. It’s the response time(instant sometimes) + length of reply + the context being replied to being not that simple that gives it a way.

[–] UnculturedSwine 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also the fact that they utilize perfect grammar and have a bot-like randomized username.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The random usernames apparently come from when you sign up using other social media accounts, like Twitter, google, Facebook. For the longest time I thought it was the indicator for a bot account. Turns out it’s an indicator for bots and new-ish users.

[–] dhork 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A favorite hobby of mine back in the day (i.e. before June) was to look up the post history of a poster with a randomized username which was recently created and reply "Welcome to Reddit! How has your first week/days/hours here been?" For some reason, simply noticing they had a new account was enough to get them to delete it.

[–] kbotc 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When they block you, it looks like they deleted the account, just FYI.

[–] dhork 6 points 1 year ago

Some do that, but I was curious enough to open a few of those in a separate browser that is not logged in, and they still show up as deleted

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

After playing around a bit, you can just kinda… taste it.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago

i've noticed a lot of bots on r/askscience. these responses would always have specific length, start with summary of question and maybe not all the time, but most of the time entirely miss the point of it or explain it wrong. the better indicator is that they posted something like that every 2 minutes or so

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I don't understand some of the ones we've been spotting. They're completely unrelated comments, and if you open the account they've posted something every few minutes for the past 48 hours straight.

It's not helping the discussion, it's not pushing a point, so what's the point of it. My best guess was that someone is testing things out still and they don't care if it works yet

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 32 points 1 year ago

Remember that Reddit sells ads. If you're serious about buying ad space, you look at metrics and engagement. Upvotes, comments, logins, active users per month.

AI serves up metrics.

[–] Jordan117 21 points 1 year ago

Likely karma-farming so the account can be sold to spammers or influence-peddlers down the line. Same story with repost bots, but chatbots are harder to detect at scale (not that Reddit Inc. cares about stopping either).

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[–] [email protected] 111 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Checked the account, here's a clear indication:

[–] Jordan117 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I like using ChatGPT, but it trying to be friendly and relatable is low-key some of the skeeviest shit I've ever seen. Reminds me of the old Patton Oswalt bit about "clean filth". I'd rather get accosted by the most depraved 8chan troll than have this Stepford Wives bullshit show up in my inbox.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=AE50vrFX_lM

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That one had me wondering if it was someone parodying a bot. Given the rest of it though, they'd have to be way more dedicated to the bit than is realistic.

Anyway, back to discussions about chainsaws and related topics:

https://media.kbin.social/media/a1/64/a164ea61650cc28b0f8e3ed8a38be1d204f03d863b36e3e322ea2246b2542a6e.png

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Basically every user that has comments that end with two emojis like this is a bot. Originally they existed to drive traffic to TEMU subs, but since Reddit banned those subs they've become harder to spot. I think the spammers just forgot to turn off their bot farm.

[–] reagansrottencorpse 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm ootl what were the aims of the temu subs?

[–] dustyData 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ain't that like the Chinese Amazon? probably an AstroTurf campaign.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Exactly this. It functions largely on referral codes.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

^ GOT 'IM! This here bot!

[–] postmateDumbass 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think The Tick has just got his first smart phone.

[–] arcticshrike 4 points 1 year ago
[–] Pretzilla 4 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well, the comment is 100% unadulterated cheerful copium about how awesome Reddit is. And encouraging other users to keep using it. The second comment is 100% r/TotallyNotRobots.

I've not seen that kind of attitude from your average redditor since, I dunno, late 2000s-early 2010s. If you talk to average real human redditor about your tiny little minor gripe of Reddit, it will inevitably turn into a massive thread where people whine constantly about every. single. little. thing. that has gone wrong over the years.

That's what organic engagement is supposed to look like on Reddit.

[–] postmateDumbass 16 points 1 year ago

ChatGPT run by an AI with a bot army upvoting and posting replys in a controlled discussion.

I can smell the organic nature already.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The short version is the ending. Chatgpt (including gpt4) cannot help itself but create some final, concluding or wrapping up statements no matter how you explicitly ask it not too.

Also what Jordan said.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This, so much this. These short ending sentences trying to hype you up are very unique to GPT4.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Likely a combination of past posts and a formulaic username. Watch this space.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is that the modern equivalent of “because of some of the pixels and seeing a lot of shops in my time”?

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kinda, but with the mounting horrified realization that your presumed authenticity as a speaker will be on trial for the rest of your life.

[–] BadRS 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can see a future where ai posts outnumber human posts and the entire internet becomes a sickly sweet conversation between competing neural networks posting their agenda to discussion boards and populating blogs.

Interestingly, their refusal to be rude may be the only thing that helps us identify them. Calling someone a cunt might be the last refuge of humanity.

[–] Gradually_Adjusting 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It'll be a post-scarcity corporate hellscape, where we constantly seek new ways to offend each other from the leg numbing comfort of our toilets, shitting on each other mercilessly as we move our bowels in the comforting knowledge of having made a genuine human connection. They'll call us... The Aristocrats!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Goddamn that was poetic, ya cunt.

[–] reagansrottencorpse 3 points 1 year ago

I'm real too you twat goblins

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's just how Reddit generates random usernames. It's an option when you create a new account. It's usually AdjectiveNounNumber. Sometimes with underscores, sometimes hyphens, sometimes as one word.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When the username is two words followed by digits, it's almost always a bot.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or somebody who picked the random username when signing up.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Either way it's a no effort account and you can basically ignore them, as their contributions will most likely be garbage either way

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Yes. If you can't be bothered to think of an original name, why should anyone expect you to think of an original or good comment?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

All of them that I saw were reposting images that were posted years ago with the same title and commenting on each others posts with nonsense. Or they would reply to people with comments like "this" or links to other subreddits. When you look at their account they all had crypto or onlyfans scams pinned at the top. Some may be made of flesh instead of code but they are all bots.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is 100% a bot that's part of the former TEMU network. Every comment is weirdly cheerful, nonsensical, and multiple end in two emojis. Pregenerated Reddit username, too.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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