(2017-09-09) The Botnet Cometh

The botnet cometh (Political ChatBots)

The bots seem to be pre-loaded with longer narratives of content that they post into a thread, as well as collections of memes to include in the discussion. And either the bots are “arguing” with each other, or some of them are actually sockpuppets, or there is some more sophisticated AI behind them, allowing them (minimal) argumentative engagement with real users. I haven’t studied them closely enough yet to know what’s behind them, but I’ve noticed several “real” users getting confused, not realizing when they’re replying to a real human, a sockpuppet, or a bot.

That’s where the bots are improving. The bots are getting better at causing people to question reality, to lose their sense of what is true and what is false.