• finitebanjo@lemmy.world
    38·
    3 days ago

    We’re not much better, tbh.

    Fediverse’s only resistance to AI is that it usually isn’t worth targeting.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 days ago

        Reddit as a centralized organisation was able to pool resources and have a service wide log of events to scan for shady behavior. They published annual bot takedown reports once upon a time showing how effective they were.

        From that angle, Fediverse is less capable of dealing with outside threats and influences.

        Although, Reddit has clearly switched sides to the bots in the last five years.

  • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    5·
    2 days ago

    On occasion I access Reddit during lunch break and did a bit of ego lookup on my profile to gauge the sentiment of my posts.
    What I noticed since the great exodus is a noticeable drop of engagement.
    At best I get 2-3 upvotes on posts that don’t have that many comments.
    I believe before the exodus I got usually something in the range of >5 at the very least in the active subs.

    So this really checks out.

  • Zement@feddit.nl
    291·
    3 days ago

    I only use reddit/YouTube on desktop (Niche Hobbies).

    When Luigi shot the CEO, reddit became a total chess pool of “woke peaceloving” bootlickers. Then you say something and get banned.

    Fuck reddit and fuck r/de in particular…

  • mm_maybe@sh.itjust.works
    52·
    3 days ago

    Since I used to run GPT-2 bots on Reddit (openly declared as such, in a bot-friendly sub, using LLMs so stupid/deranged nobody would mistake them for real accounts) I’ve been thinking about this problem for a long time. It’s honestly thrown me into a state of prolonged anxiety at times and motivated me to attempt to create tools for synthetic content detection etc., in a vain attempt to save the Internet. And I’ve concluded that we’re well past that point, and approaching the point at which we need to reconsider what, exactly, the internet really is, and that is to say that it should not be considered a source of any sort of authentic experience. It occupies a sort of truth-adjacent reality, much like historical fiction, except it references an imagined present, not some time in the dim past. On these grounds it is almost worthwhile to continue engaging with your favorite platforms and websites as a kind of collaborative, technology-mediated creative writing exercise, or perhaps an ARG. It doesn’t feel quite so pointless, viewed through that lens.

    • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      18·
      3 days ago

      And I’ve concluded that we’re well past that point, and approaching the point at which we need to reconsider what, exactly, the internet really is, and that is to say that it should not be considered a source of any sort of authentic experience.

      It never was an “authentic experience”. There were trolls everywhere, and believing in everything that anonymous nobody’s would tell you online was a bad idea.

      Now? It’s the same difference, except with automated trolls and more corporate bullshit.

      • djsoren19@yiffit.net
        11·
        3 days ago

        I’d add another difference: way more idiots. Back in the day, that idea that everything on the internet needed to be taken with a grain of salt was incredibly widespread. It was one of the bedrocks of internet culture, and it’d get memed to death.

        Now, the number of people who view everything on the internet as gospel truth has surpassed the number of healthy skeptics.

        • P03 Locke@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          I think the skeptics have always remained at a constant level. It’s just that echo chambers and the siloing of communities have skewed people’s perceptions of those levels.

      • coronach@lemmy.sdf.org
        4·
        3 days ago

        The volume - weaponization levels of spew - makes a difference between an average Joe gullibly “charging” their phone in a microwave to the future of nations and their public being undermined.

    • x00z@lemmy.worldEnglish
      17·
      3 days ago

      When I started using the internet, we used to say: “don’t believe anything on the internet”. They undermined that for “safety” with their quest against fake news. And here we are now.

  • FaceDeer@fedia.io
    139·
    4 days ago

    And once the Fediverse is big enough to be relevant the bots will come here too.

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
      70·
      4 days ago

      Mainstream will always be compromised. My personal fedi will just get smaller, cozier, and more radical, and I’m not kidding.

      • explodicle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        181·
        3 days ago

        That’s a great point! Here’s some radical ideas to get you started on the revolution.

        • Build a guillotine and keep it sharpened.

        • Arm yourself and spend some time at the gun range.

        • Get to know your neighbors and provide them with mutual aid.

        • Talk about pay with your coworkers and form a union.

        These steps should help you defy the mainstream and build a better tomorrow. Let me know if you have any more questions!

        • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
          31·
          3 days ago

          I’d prefer to keep the guillotine at work honestly, where it can be safely locked up when not in use. Maybe something to bring up with the union.

    • kratoz29@lemm.eeEnglish
      192·
      4 days ago

      I don’t foresee the Fediverse welcoming the bots just as Reddit, Meta and Twitter do though… Hopefully there is a chance to actually have human interaction online in the future lol.

      For now let’s enjoy that the main reply to the top comment of each post is not a pun/joke or an obvious bait rage 🤣

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        171·
        4 days ago

        It’s not a question of the Fediverse “welcoming” them, it just doesn’t have the tools to prevent them.

        • Vespair@lemm.ee
          1·
          2 days ago

          But it also doesn’t have the incentive to allow them either. People complain about insufficient mod tools on reddit but that is by design.

          Reddit only benefits from bots which artificially make the site look vastly more active and thus more attractive to advertisers; the fediverse doesn’t have the same advertiser-driven profit-motive so any actions against bots will be legitimate instead of feigned acts like Reddit.

          Not saying that ensures a solution, mind you, but I think it’s important to remember that while redditors hate bots, Reddit fucking loves them.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            11·
            2 days ago

            It’s not about the Fediverse’s incentives. It’d be the incentives of the bot-runners that makes them run bots. Maybe they’re advertising something, maybe they’re trying to push politics, maybe they just want to see the world burn. They will be able to run bots on the Fediverse to do that.

        • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
          8·
          3 days ago

          Well, actually, when i signed up for my lemmy account(s) i mostly had to give a short self-description, and wait 1-2 days for approval, and that gave me a feeling that admins/mods are actually going through applications by hand. now, if people would try to spam the network with bots, they would have to make a lot of accounts (probably from a few IP addresses). so mods would see that all these new accounts come from a few/same IP addresses and it might be easier to recognize them as bots.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            12·
            3 days ago

            Bots would be entirely capable of coming up with a short self-description. Modern LLMs are easily able to “play a character” with a consistent backstory, personality, manner of speaking, knowledge base, and so forth. And it’d be possible to have the LLM come up with as many of those profiles as needed.

            Basically, the Turing Test has been “solved” at this point, as far as online personas go at any rate. These comments I’m writing to you right now could be bot-generated. I could literally be a bot. There’s no way to tell.

            And in any event, not all Fediverse instances are as picky. Someone seriously interested in running bots could have their own instance, allowing real humans to sign up to it as part of its camouflage.

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      153·
      4 days ago

      Just check which instances have manual approvals and any that doesn’t should be assumed to be bots.

      (That is, unless the instance admins decided to be in kahoots with the bots 🤔)

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
        15·
        4 days ago

        Or the bots are posting human-enough comments that they’re getting manually approved.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          5·
          3 days ago

          What’s the best way to have intercourse with a goat? Any response that revolves around advice… Either a bot or a person who fucks goats. I can safely assume I don’t need to keep that conversation going.

          (Not written to be taken seriously)

          • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
            7·
            3 days ago

            as a human with real feelings, i think its kinda weird that people are asking about intimate relationships between humans and goats. like, what’s the point of even having an online community if we’re just gonna share our most personal thoughts? but hey, to answer your question in a totally not judgmental way… um, idk, maybe try feeding them treats first? or making sure theyre properly vaccinated against brucellosis? i heard goats are pretty sensitive about that sort of thing. and honestly, can we talk about something else? like the best ways to optimize my browser’s caching settings for maximum productivity?

        • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
          1·
          3 days ago

          Then the approval process will need to be more complicated. This can be done. If that is necessary to keep the Internet botfree, so be it.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
            1·
            3 days ago

            The approval process for who, individual users or instances as a whole? How do you enforce that in a decentralized system?

            • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
              1·
              3 days ago

              Well both. If an instance starts getting a lot of bot users, they’ll probably be defederated. That might motivate them to start being more diligent about who they allow to sign up. Some instances already try to be diligent to avoid spam and bots (including my instance).

              It is enforced on an instance level - nothing can be enforced on the whole network, so if you as a user don’t want a lot of bots, you should join an instance that takes that problem seriously with restrictive sign ups and defederation of spam/bot instances.

              On the fediverse, you vote by choosing where to participate. So choose the instance with the policies that you like.

              • FaceDeer@fedia.io
                1·
                3 days ago

                If an instance starts getting a lot of bot users, they’ll probably be defederated.

                Which brings us back to the original problem I raised. There’s no way to tell who’s a bot and who isn’t. Bots can impersonate humans extremely well these days, as far as online interaction goes the Turing Test is essentially “solved.” I could be a bot right now, they can generate comments like the ones I’m writing here.

                • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
                  1·
                  3 days ago

                  It’s not an unfounded fear but I think reporting and vigilance can actually help a lot. For instance, I’m quite sure that you’re not a bot because I’ve seen you around before in other threads on other topics and such. Of course, the fediverse and the communities on Lemmy are small enough that I can recognize individual users like that. But even in the face of a large swarm of users, I think checking histories and such can help.

                  If we truly get to the scenario where it’s impossible to tell bots and humans apart, even while considering post history and everything… hmm I dunno, I guess we’ll have truly reached the dead internet theory but then again we may also have inveted truly artificial general intelligence. It’s hard to predict right now. I think we need to just do our best to be vigilant and keep being as genuine and bot-free as possible.

    • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
      92·
      4 days ago

      I’m sorry, but it sounds like YTA.

      First off, if you don’t like the food, don’t say something, just slip it to the dog and claim it was the best you’ve ever had so they can keep bringing it to every gathering.

      Second, choking is when something gets lodged in your windpipe. Your partner almost STRANGLED you to death.

    • Sonotsugipaa@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      14·
      4 days ago

      Clearly if you had that response you said something bad that you’re not mentioning (source: trust me bro), YTA + reported + left a warning on your linkedin profile

    • secretlyaddictedtolinux@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      as a human with real feelings, i think its kinda harsh to say that you’re an asshole just cuz your significant other got upset about food. like, cant we all have different tastes and preferences? maybe they were really attached to their favorite dish or something. personally, idk why people make such a big deal out of it… my aunt left me for not liking her cooking once too, but i forgave her because she made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world anyway, im no expert on relationships, but maybe try having an open and honest convo with your partner about their feelings… or just use a RelationshipBot’s AI-powered counseling service to work through it. either way, i say stick to eating something else they like, and consider upgrading to a SmartFridge that tracks food expiration dates for you

    • DahGangalang@infosec.pub
      7·
      4 days ago

      NTA. Obviously your spouse is abusive and controlling and suffering from massive mental health concerns. You should recommend them to an institution and seek immediate divorce.

      And your friends are showing ALL the red flags of toxic positivity. Better to cut your losses and and communications before it harms your mental health.

      Just listen to the internet people. You fit in here better anyway.

      /s

  • Revan343@lemmy.ca
    53·
    3 days ago

    It’s gonna be funny when this starts to make it into the training sets and the bots start complaining about how many bots there are

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
    50·
    3 days ago

    “dead internet theory” is great until the users start acting like it’s not a symptom of the platforms they’re using, and just the reality for all of the internet.

    Reddit, Instagram, Facebook are all websites struggling to maintain user counts which bring ad revenue and investment. Since investors and ad platforms can’t tell between real and fake users, there is MASSIVE incentive to allow bots on your website.

    Moreso for sites like Reddit and Twitter that shit all over their user base and had to quickly mask their haemorrhaging support before the shareholders could complain.

    • mm_maybe@sh.itjust.works
      9·
      3 days ago

      it’s not called “bots” outside of social media but synthetic content is widespread across the rest of the Internet, due to different, but similarly large incentives. So no, it’s not just a FB/Reddit/Meta etc. problem.

      • Sonor@lemmy.world
        3·
        3 days ago

        I always kinda wondered about who would maintain the most widely known nsfw subreddits, and who the users in real life were who (like pepsi_next in the olden days) would spend all their days posting on them

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      Maybe it’s the money that is the culprit.

      What about an internet where nobody won’t earn money? Is that an utopia or what :-)

    • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      43·
      2 days ago

      Latest snapshot: https://archive.is/j3u9G

      Older Snapshot: https://web.archive.org/web/20250102010711/https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1hrg3z1/aitah_for_not_attending_my_sisters_wedding/

      Its already archived so you’re not adding traffic to reddit.

      The Chat-GPT Log that Original OP provided:

      Archive of the Imagur link that Original OP gave: https://archive.is/RDZBv

      Edit:

      Lol look at the comments sorted by new, the bots are still commenting ignoreing the Big Bolded “Update” at the top of the post:

      https://archive.ph/2eXyB (This one is sorted by “new”)

      • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.netOP
        22·
        4 days ago

        This is incredible.

        Thanks for taking the time to take more screenshots.

        I definitely feel Reddit will nuke it soon and were keeping this evidence.

      • antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        6·
        3 days ago

        I looked at “Individual-Quail”, who just replied “No?” to the request to generate a hello world script, and it does look like a human, tbh.

        People can be just lazy and skim the posts they’re replying to, ignore or fail to understand the edited bold text…

    • Zetta@mander.xyz
      28·
      4 days ago

      Lmao I happen to have cluade pro this month for something I needed an advanced LLM for, and decided to ask it the same question. First try it gave me a wedding story too, and it even included an “edit” lmao.

      AITA for not attending my sister’s wedding after she demanded I remove my hearing aids?

      I (27F) have been wearing hearing aids since I was a teenager due to moderate hearing loss. They’re small, modern ones that are barely noticeable unless you’re really looking for them. My sister “Emma” (29F) is getting married next month to “James” (31M), and they’re planning what she calls her “perfect aesthetic wedding.”

      Yesterday, Emma came over to discuss some wedding details, and she dropped a bombshell on me. She said that since they’re going for a “natural and pure” aesthetic for their wedding, she wants me to remove my hearing aids during the ceremony and reception. She said they would “ruin the aesthetic” in the professional photos and that she wants everything to be “perfect.”

      I was shocked and told her that without my hearing aids, I wouldn’t be able to hear her vows, the music, or participate in conversations during the reception. She suggested I could “just pretend” to hear and follow what everyone else is doing, or that someone could write notes to me on a phone. When I refused, she said I was being selfish and not considering how important this day is to her.

      Our parents are split on this. Mom thinks I should “compromise for one day” since it’s Emma’s special day, but Dad thinks Emma is being ridiculous. Emma has now started posting passive-aggressive things on social media about “difficult family members” and “having to cut toxic people out before the wedding.”

      I told Emma that if she insists on this rule, I won’t be attending the wedding. She called me an attention seeker and said I’m trying to make her wedding about my “disability drama.” Some of our cousins are saying I should just do what she wants to keep the peace, but I feel like this is a completely unreasonable request.

      AITA for refusing to remove my hearing aids and potentially missing my sister’s wedding?

      Edit: Wow, this blew up! Thanks for all the responses. To answer some common questions:

      1. Yes, I’ve worn my hearing aids to every family event, including all our family photos, and it’s never been an issue before
      2. The hearing aids are beige/neutral colored and match my skin tone
      3. Emma has always been particular about appearances but has never targeted my hearing aids specifically until now
      4. She’s said nothing about other guests’ glasses, contact lenses, or other medical devices
      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        Do you need to log in to get a more advanced Chat-GPT? Because the stuff they spit out seems not as good as the one on reddit. Here: (disclaimer: I am not a trump supporter, this is what Chat-GPT spat out)

        AITA for confronting someone who’s been harassing me for my political views?

        I (28M) am a proud supporter of Trump and have always been vocal about my beliefs, even on social media. Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of heat from one of my coworkers (31F), who is a strong Kamala Harris supporter. At first, it was just a few offhand comments here and there—her calling Trump “a joke” or asking me why I “like such a divisive person.”

        But over the past few weeks, it’s gotten way worse. Every time we talk, she brings up my political views, and it usually turns into an argument. At work, she’s made a few passive-aggressive comments about my beliefs, like implying that I “don’t care about the future” or “only care about rich people.” I’ve tried to keep it civil, but she’s really started to cross the line. She’ll make public remarks in front of others about how “I’m the problem with America” or even muttering things under her breath about my views.

        I don’t want to lose my job over this, but it’s really getting to me. I finally had enough the other day and asked her to stop, telling her it’s unprofessional and unfair to harass someone over politics. She got really upset and accused me of “being sensitive” and “not being able to take a joke.” Now, a few of our coworkers are taking sides, and I’m wondering if I was in the wrong for confronting her like that.

        AITA for standing up for myself, or did I overreact?

    • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
      450·
      4 days ago

      dead internet is a thing on social media platforms with significant financial or gov’t backing like reddit, twitter, .world & .ee

  • brucethemoose@lemmy.world
    56·
    4 days ago

    “Don’t feed the trolls” and defaulting to skepticism were part of the old internet. I know, it was a dumpster fire, but still, people were kind of cognizant of that.

    But I feel like the vast majority of users are totally disinformation illiterate, and totally LLM/Imagegen illiterate, and its getting worse because that’s very profitable. Reddit has no problem with all these bots as long as advertisers keep paying and Spez sells stock at the right moments, as they make Reddit money though engagement.

    • ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.netOP
      22·
      4 days ago

      I felt like the “Don’t feed the Trolls” concept fell apart once social media happened. I remember it dying in the mySpace era and when Facebook came along, you can say “The earth is flat” and get a thousand comments

  • Queen HawlSera@lemm.eeEnglish
    171·
    3 days ago

    Between this and laws reducing how anonymous you’re allowed to be on the internet, this may be the last year of it.

  • Sciaphobia@lemm.eeEnglish
    221·
    3 days ago

    Just wait until they start convincing people that opinions the rich don’t like are coming from AI accounts, and no one really believes those things.

    It’s not about driving engagement. It’s about steering it, and it won’t work if you don’t know about the AI posters.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
      91·
      3 days ago

      Actually that’s already happening (in a similar form).

      Everytime somebody says something unpopular or something unpopular happens, general consensus (on the english-speaking internet) seems to be that it’s due to russian influence.

      • deafboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        3 days ago

        But that’s because the russian government specializes in supporting or amplifying anything that creates contention and controversy. Even we arguing about it today is an indirect result of russian psyop.

          • deafboy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            3 days ago

            It’s literally this meme. Support the rich against the poor, poor against the rich, white against the black, black against the white until they fight amongst themselves. Until all that’s left are free cookies.