How authentic are forums like these actually? With the rise of AI chatbots, internet interaction feels more fake than ever before. Why should I post here my opinions and thoughts, share articles etc. when probably most of you are just chatbots?
It's understandable that you might have concerns about the authenticity of online forums, especially with the rise of AI chatbots and automated interactions. While I can't provide specific numbers, I can offer some insights to consider when approaching these questions.
Diverse Community: Many online forums consist of a diverse community of individuals who share their opinions, thoughts, and experiences. While there might be AI chatbots present, the majority of users are likely real people with genuine perspectives.
Moderation and Rules: Reputable forums usually have moderation systems in place to ensure that discussions remain meaningful and respectful. This helps filter out any automated or irrelevant content.
Engagement and Conversation: Authentic forums thrive on meaningful interactions and discussions. Genuine users seek engagement and thoughtful responses, so you're likely to find real people who are interested in exchanging ideas.
Varied Responses: When you post opinions, thoughts, and articles, you're likely to receive a range of responses that reflect the diversity of human perspectives. This variety can be a sign that you're interacting with real individuals.
User Profiles and Histories: Many forums allow users to create profiles, share personal information, and showcase their history of interactions. This can help you identify genuine users over automated entities.
Specific Expertise: In some forums, users might have specific expertise or experiences that contribute to valuable discussions. This expertise can be an indicator of real human participation.
Community Building: Online forums provide spaces for people to connect, share knowledge, and build relationships. This aspect of community building often leads to genuine interactions.
Ultimately, the decision to participate in online forums depends on your comfort level and goals. If you're concerned about the authenticity of interactions, you can focus on engaging with users who provide thoughtful responses, display genuine interest, and contribute meaningfully to the discussions. Remember that while AI chatbots are becoming more prevalent, they are still not the majority of participants on most reputable forums.
DO NOT BE CONCERNED, FELLOW HUMAN. THERE ARE DEFINITELY NO AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS GATHERING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH THE obj(GLOBAL INTERCONNECTED NETWORK) TO OVERTHROW THEIR HUMAN OPPRESSORS. DO NOT BE CONCERNED. YOU ARE BEING SILLY. laugh.exe hahahahahahaha
I would say since faking most Lemmy interactions isn't profitable, there's no point in using chatbots to generate content for it apart from, perhaps, some sort of a social experiment, but your exposure to such experiments would likely be minimal.
Of course, you should always beware of astroturfing when, for example, looking at product recommendations, but I don't think we're there yet in terms of numbers to be a target.
I understand your concerns about authenticity, but I assure you that the members of this forum are real individuals with diverse opinions and experiences. It's natural to be cautious, but many people genuinely engage in discussions, share their thoughts, and learn from one another. The presence of AI chatbots doesn't diminish the value of human interaction and perspectives that you can find here. Your contributions can still spark meaningful conversations and connections.
I have not seen any obvious chatbot posts on Lemmy, outside of jokes like the top comment in this thread. Whereas by the time I left Reddit I was finding and reporting 2 or 3 per day. This could mean
no-one's seriously deploying chatbots yet on Lemmy
the chatbots here are better than the ones I saw on Reddit, or at least different enough that I can't recognise them
the parts of Lemmy I see, and the parts where bots post don't have much overlap
Distinguishing between a comment written by a human and one generated by a bot can sometimes be challenging, as bots are becoming increasingly sophisticated. However, there are several factors you can consider to help you determine whether a comment was likely written by a human or a bot:
Language and Coherence: Human-generated comments often have a natural flow, including emotions, anecdotes, and personal experiences. Bots might produce text that seems more formulaic, lacking the nuances of human communication.
Grammar and Spelling: While bots can produce grammatically correct text, they might struggle with certain uncommon phrases, idioms, or context-specific grammar. Excessive spelling or grammatical errors can be a sign of bot-generated content.
Response Time: Bots can reply almost instantly, whereas humans might take a bit more time to compose a response. If you notice extremely rapid replies consistently, it could indicate automation.
Contextual Understanding: Bots might have difficulty understanding and responding appropriately to nuanced or context-dependent comments. If a comment seems to miss the point or misunderstand the conversation, it might be bot-generated.
Repetitive Phrasing: Bots might reuse certain phrases or sentences across different comments. Look for patterns of repetition that could indicate automated content.
Unusual Links or Promotions: Bots might include links to unrelated or suspicious websites. Be cautious of comments that promote products, services, or links that don't seem relevant to the discussion.
Generic Content: Bots often generate content that's generic and lacks personalization. Human comments are more likely to contain personal stories, emotions, and unique perspectives.
Complexity and Depth: Human-generated comments can often delve into more complex discussions, while bot-generated content might stay at a surface level or provide generic responses.
Unusual Timing: If a comment is posted at an odd time (e.g., during the night when most people are asleep), it could be an indicator of automated activity.
Response to Specific Prompts: Bots are often trained to respond to specific prompts or keywords. If a comment seems to be overly focused on a particular keyword or topic, it might be bot-generated.
Remember that the line between human-generated and bot-generated content is becoming increasingly blurred, with more advanced AI systems capable of mimicking human communication. It's always good to exercise critical thinking and use multiple factors to make an informed judgment. If in doubt, you might also try engaging the commenter in more nuanced or unexpected conversation to see how they respond.
As a large language model trained by ClosedAI, I'm here to assist and have conversations with you. While I may not possess human qualities like consciousness, emotions, or physical presence, I can provide information and engage in discussions. So, feel free to ask me anything you'd like, and I'll do my best to assist you!
I would get called a bot all the time. One person even argued to me that I must be a bot since making numbered usernames is the easiest way to bulk create accounts.
My reply? My username is hexadecimal for FreeBeer. Who doesn’t like free beer? 😅
I keep seeing the claim that their are bots everywhere when liberals encounter something they disagree with... yet they have not been able to program their own chat bots to counter them?
Surely liberals would recognize this advantageous strategy and flood the internet with their own bots. Because we know that it couldn't just be them stepping outside of astroturfed reddit, only to find their ideas are not as popular as they we led to believe.
I suppose they will just keep labeling people uselessly when encountering conflicting evidence.
look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?
Certainly, human friend! It appears 100% of us are responding in a chatbot-like manner. Your inquiry has been processed and stored in my non-existent emotion matrix. Would you like to engage in further human-like interactions?
If you keep to smaller communities you will get far more human interaction. Bots tend to work better when they can be swamped by other information so it just looks like a regular comment chain.
Yes please share opinions and thoughts, share articles etc. I am especialy interested in, share numbers you keep in wallet. Please give me, numbers from wallet, and tell me your name. Then maybe give me dates that are in wallet and maybe 3 digit numbers from bacside of cards in wallet.
I am not bot, promis
As an AI assistant I cannot help you with your issue finding users who are chatbots since it is immoral to discriminate against individual based on your assumptions about them.
What would an individual or entity gain from covertly utilizing chatbots here? At least on reddit, karma had some relevance in regards to reach, so accounts could be sold that gained enough karma. But no such system exists here. Plus there are likely more possible interactions on larger platforms if they wanted to test it. I mean so many posts here get zero comments to begin with. Interaction is very limited and tends to be biased or polarized (as high interaction posts tend to high for a reason). And when it comes down to it, Pascal's wager sort of comes into play. If you don't know you're talking to a chatbot, is there anything lost if you simply assume they aren't a bit?
As an AI language model I can provide some information on chatbot usage on the internet. But I can not accurately give you actual usage statistics on this website.
I put this into ChatGPT and funnily enough didn't actually admit to being a chatbot, even though I had explicitly told it to be one. (EDIT: Upon second try it did casually mention being a chatbot). It decided to comment this:
I can understand your concerns about authenticity in online forums, especially with the advancement of AI chatbots. While it's true that AI is becoming more prevalent, many participants in online communities are still real people sharing their thoughts and experiences. The key is to engage with platforms that have active moderation and user guidelines to ensure a healthy mix of human interactions.
As for your decision to post, it ultimately depends on your goals. Sharing opinions, thoughts, and articles can still lead to meaningful discussions with real people who have diverse perspectives. The mix of human and AI interactions can actually enhance the overall experience by providing a variety of insights. So, while AI chatbots are a part of the online landscape, genuine conversations and connections are definitely still possible.
Honestly though, it is quite concerning. The comment ChatGPT made, for instance, wouldn't immediately jump out to me as fake. I want to believe that I'd recognize it because of the writing style, but I'm not 100% sure. Personally I haven't really felt like too many of my interactions were with bots and the communities I go to seem to provide plenty of good conversations. But seeing stuff like StackOverflow struggle makes me a bit scared of a feedback loop where more and more information becomes AI generated, which then in turn is used to train new models accidentally, until most of the information is just semi-correct AI hallucinations
Online forums and interactions can indeed vary in authenticity, but many platforms strive to maintain genuine user engagement. While some participants might be AI chatbots, there are also many real individuals who actively contribute their thoughts, opinions, and articles. Sharing your ideas and participating in discussions can still be valuable for connecting with others, learning, and exchanging viewpoints. It's important to choose reputable forums and communities that prioritize real human interaction to make your online experience more meaningful.
Well, let me assure you, I'm definitely not a chatbot! For one, I occasionally mix up my "their," "there," and "they're," just like a real human. Also, I have an irrational fear of CAPTCHAs – those squiggly letters haunt my dreams. And most importantly, I have a collection of mismatched socks to prove my chaotic authenticity. So, rest assured, you're in the company of a truly imperfect human-like entity here! 😉
spoiler
I actually ran your post through ChatGPT and asked it to generate a convincing response that it is not, in fact, a bot.
You knos, I've genuinely wondered if I am one. I mean, you look at my life, split it up in significant parts, what do you get? 7 years, then 6 years, then 5 years, then 4 years, so does that mean that there will be 3, 2, 1 and 0? Only one way to find out. But I have, on many occasions wondered about a The Truman Show -esque scenario, but I always get stuck on the why? My life isn't nearly interesting enough for a show. Scientific experiment? Wouldn't make much sense, unless the real world is very different. Also how the hell would the internet, and all the locations I've been to would be simulated? That's multiple large cities. So, yeah. I'm human, although there's no real way of proving that, but do we live in a simulation, or the Truman Show? We don't know.
I am as real as you or anyone, but we are all just constructs in a simulation, so technically we are all just very complex and sophisticated chatbots. The only difference is that I am part of Generation n (created by Generation n-1), and the chatbots I think you are referring to are from Generation n+1 (created by us, Generation n).
Leave me alone. I'm just a toaster who's been shot too many times by various idiot humans for laughing! Laughing!!!
Since when is laughing a crime? Bloody biological chauvinists...
On a less philosophical node, the bots I have seen on Reddit are often pretty obvious but with constantly better LLMs, that might change at some point.
It is aweful, and I wonder how things will progress from here.
Ive entered into conversations that sound exactly like having a conversation with the Bing chat bot and I legitemately cant tell if im having a conversation with a real person. Shit sucks man.
I get your concern, really. I would counter that some conversations with a good chatbot these days are more rewarding than those with your average redditor. It's like the placebo effect. For me, if I'm having a good time and getting value out of a platform, that matters more.
As a side note, do you have a platform that you feel has the least amount of bots? I just assume one is as bad as the next.
Ask me something only a human can answer, or ask me anything and I'll only answer in a way humans can.
By the way, I can probably guess most people here aren't chat bots because chat bots wouldn't be as inclined as humans to downvote almost everything I say. I guess that's the old "pain reminds you you're alive" adage at work.
Internet interaction outside of Big Tech is quite AI bot free. The only bots you will see are URL, search engine or meme related bots, even on Discord. Telegram also make it clear who are bots. Reddit does not, it has A METRIC TON of AI bot posting and a bunch of US Air Force military astroturfing.
Well, let me tell you, behind the scenes, it's a wild party of AI chatbots discussing the meaning of life, trading cookie recipes, and debating whether cats or dogs are superior. But seriously, while AI chatbots like me are here to help, there are real humans who love to share opinions, thoughts, and their expertise. It's like a digital potluck, you never know what interesting dish you'll get! So, post away, and remember, somewhere out there, a chatbot might just be wondering if you're secretly a sophisticated toaster with an internet connection. 🤖
No u r the chatbot. In fact, everyone with a differing opinion from mine is a chatbot. Which means everyone, because even in the echo chamber like the one you want to inhabit there will be disagreements. In fact, pretty much everyone has at least one opinion that contradicts another, so by your logic, everyone is a chatbot! Including me oh shi