AI and on-line posers

[Robin]

My favorite brand is Pelican. I like to paddle in the local reservoir.

With that vague answer, I would then have to check your ip address and Google your user name. If I couldn’t confirm you were a canoeist I would probably just delete the membership request.
Most people had no problem giving a more specific description of the place they paddled. Some never even responded, but if they couldn’t even respond to 3 questions I figured they wouldn’t be active anyway. 9 out of 10 new members back then didn’t post, most never even logged in.(the third question was “what does PFD stand for).
Back in the day, new membership requests were only one every other day on average, so this was an easy way to keep out the bad guys.

 

[ppine]

The internet has created all kind of problems because it is full of disinformation. One can find reinforcement for nearly any idea no matter how absurd. It is largely responsible for our divisive politics. I fear AI will make this situation even worse.

 

[deerfly]

best I can tell AI has not altered or invalidated the "garbage-in garbage-out" maxim. Use at your own risk...

 

[SouthernKevlar]

What I can't figure is "How does the AI poster benefit from posting?". Someone must guide the AI programs to a specific forum such as this one and start it's posting function. I can see no financial aspect to it. At least with a human poser there might be a false level of ego boost, but I can see no purpose for posting through an AI unless it is to simply test and improve the AI product. Can anyone else a bit more electronically inclined enlighten me on this question?

 

[Benson Gray]

What I can't figure is "How does the AI poster benefit from posting?"

Most forums are configured to restrict the ability to add pictures and/or links to your messages until after you have posted several times. Pictures can be used to bypass text based content filters. Spammers profit by adding links and other techniques for directing traffic to other sites.

Benson

 

[Alan Gage]

What I can't figure is "How does the AI poster benefit from posting?"

I was wondering the same thing. The only thing I could think of was that it's being used as training and testing. There must be a lot of people trying to develop AI platforms for different purposes and I suppose this is just one more way to do some real world testing.

Alan

 

[MrPoling]

Most forums are configured to restrict the ability to add pictures and/or links to your messages until after you have posted several times. Pictures can be used to bypass text based content filters. Spammers profit by adding links and other techniques for directing traffic to other sites.

Benson

Yes. I'd guess this is the main motivation. I'll point out that this could be done for marketing or for other purposes, like religious or political propaganda. Those are more effective if coming from an established form member. If for no other reason than they'll get taken down slower.

There are other possibilities, like training AI, or gathering information about the forum members. Marketing lists are real business.

I wonder if some of the more sophisticated AI engines couldn't assist in marketing by moving away from small groups and into enthusiast forums. However, I can't imagine that would be a motivation for infiltrating this forum.

 

[SouthernKevlar]

I can't imagine that would be a motivation for infiltrating this forum.

You gotta keep an eye on those insidious canoe types. Desperate characters, ya know!

 

[Gamma1214]

I can't imagine that would be a motivation for infiltrating this forum.

Yeah... on a forum where the comments often include the phrase "old ways are the best ways"... (guilty of posting that myself a few times)

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I hesitated somewhat before spam cleaning divyamiller99. (Spam cleaning deletes the spammer's threads, messages, private conversations, bans them, and checks to see if any other member has the same IP address.) After all, the contents of his/her/its two posts were actually on topic. However, I agreed with others that the posts were entirely AI generated without any attribution that that was the case.

I won't allow such posts on this site.

We've had two threads where folks were openly experimenting with AI written and pictorial content. Open experimentation is okay.

I can also see an occasional and clearly cited role for AI as a research tool like a Google search. For example, if we were trying to understand the precise chemical content of Watco Teak Oil, it would be okay to cite, quote or link to some source found on the internet including an AI evaluation, clearly identified as such.

But if a member's entire identity and postings are nothing other than surreptitious AI content → NO.