Has anyone noticed a lot of posts recently that seem like they've been written by AI? They are completely off-topic and only give a rudimentary explanation of the topics discussed in a thread, i.e. describing what Android is or what an iPod is when everyone already knows... At first I was led to believe it was just people posting perhaps through a translator, but the frequency and number has increased recently; enough that I think these are actually AI posters. Was curious if anyone else has noticed this, and specifically if the mod team has any input as to whether they're AI or what it could be.
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AI posters on Macrumors
- Thread starter retta283
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Yep, it's an increasing issue. We get rid of them if we have good confidence that they're AI-generated, but I'm sure some slip through. Feel free to report suspected ones and we can take a look at them.
I am not sure if it is AI, but I noticed that some MR members are posting threads asking strange questions, usually to the community chat, but not always.
Always seems like the same few or maybe just one member posting these strange threads.
Honestly, even before seeing this thread about AI posts, I remember many times looking at some of these posts and thinking that only an extra terrestrial that was trying to study human behavior would ask such questions.
I can't remember any specific questions, but it would be something like "Why do people say the sky is blue, when it can be many different colors, especially at sunset?".
Maybe not the best example, but it was the first thing to pop in my head.
Always seems like the same few or maybe just one member posting these strange threads.
Honestly, even before seeing this thread about AI posts, I remember many times looking at some of these posts and thinking that only an extra terrestrial that was trying to study human behavior would ask such questions.
I can't remember any specific questions, but it would be something like "Why do people say the sky is blue, when it can be many different colors, especially at sunset?".
Maybe not the best example, but it was the first thing to pop in my head.
I think I know what you're referring to, and yes it's very odd. I don't think that's AI, just a bit of creative 'fun' on their part if you catch my drift. I see it on other forums too, and I've even spoken with some of the people who create such threads and they are otherwise very normal people.
However, we are getting to the point with AI that it is probably already possible that they are capable of such a thing, but we may not see it in earnest for another year or two. AI will be used in a concerted effort to intentionally confuse and troll people, because for some reason there are bored minds out there who get a kick out of it. Otherwise I see zero point for such AI posting because they aren't even advertising product like the usual spam bots anymore, they're just garbage non-interest posts.
A possibility is persona bots.
One example of an extension of this technology is the “persona bot,” an AI posing as an individual on social media and other online groups. Persona bots have histories, personalities, and communication styles. They don’t constantly spew propaganda. They hang out in various interest groups: gardening, knitting, model railroading, whatever. They act as normal members of those communities, posting and commenting and discussing. Systems like GPT-3 will make it easy for those AIs to mine previous conversations and related Internet content and to appear knowledgeable.
I agree this behavior isn't restricted to new users or potential bot-accounts as @Juicy Box said above. Reasons could be rank-striving, loneliness, boredom, laziness...the list is endless.
Fairly recently I have noticed at least a couple of posts written by members who have been around a while, so not newbies or spammers, that in their content (not spammy) definitely do have the distinct scent of AI and indeed differs from what have been the member's usual posts..... Not a crime, per se, but still, is this appropriate?
Is the admins/mods team of MR developing guidelines and/or a policy to identify and deal with this sort of situation in the future?
Is the admins/mods team of MR developing guidelines and/or a policy to identify and deal with this sort of situation in the future?
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We don't allow AI/bot posts, so if you see one please report it so we can take a look.
Good, another thing to watch for and report! You can count on my eyes 👀
From what I’ve been able to experiment with ChatGPT and other technologies, this is only the beginning, so be prepared. Right now this AIs still have limitations, they are (not so) easily detectable, but in one or two years, if LLM technology keeps evolving at this pace, we’ll be on an scenario where it will be really difficult to discern human users from bots. And I’m not sending my ID to anyone on the Internet to verify me, that’s a red line for me.
I guess users like me who have been active for more than a decade are free from those suspicions (unless our account gets hacked). But discerning among new users, may be tricky sooner than we think.
Mind you, I’m about to open a thread about the safety of uploading personal pictures to a dating app, because of the misuses an AI with pictures of my face could do. I don’t know if that is considered a weird topic, but I want to get into the dating pool, and this apps require you to upload personal pictures, pictures that can be gathered by some AIs to do who knows what…
I still don’t know where to open this thread tho, on the App Store and apps subforum, or in the Community Discussion subforum.
Just remember that some of us are getting on in years.
The changes you observe could be due to something else than AI.Still, this is going to be a huge issue as AI-generated nonsense starts soiling the internet, as if the contributions of many humans isn't bad enough already. I don't envy the mods trying to police this. Good luck.
I'm laughing, reading this.Just remember that some of us are getting on in years.
Agreed.
Quite apart from all of the other concerns where tech plays a role in our lives, it seems to me that this one will loom ever larger.
I'm working on some replies I can use to assess potential AI/bot posters. For starters:
- Someone gives you a calfskin iPhone case for your birthday. How do you react?
- You're watching AppleTV+. Suddenly you spot a wasp crawling on your arm. How do you react?
- While walking in an Apple Store, you suddenly look down and see a Genius crawling toward you. You reach down and flip them over onto their back. The Genius lies there, their belly baking under the hot lights, beating their legs, trying to turn themselves over, but they cannot do so without your help. You are not helping. Why?
Pure comedic genius. Practically bruised a rib laughing.
Brilliant.
In general, I detest emojis, but, if one existed to signify applause - prolonged and sustained applause - then, I would click on it to signal both approval and applause for your post.
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I sense a new thread coming on.... 'Blade Runner tests for AI bots in MR'...
Perhaps it is simply a manifestation of the old "space time warp continuum" in action.
We're looking into using this "old school" question:
Or maybe I'm just saying that to mislead the bot-training web crawlers.
Or maybe I'm saying that to mislead the bot-trainers.
And speaking of bots, this was an interesting read, despite limitations of the study:
1960s chatbot ELIZA beat OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 in a recent Turing test study
AI chatbot deception paper suggests that some bots (and people) aren’t very persuasive.
arstechnica.com
The AI's emotion chip just kicked in. Just like how Data finally understood Geordi's joke.😉
"The clown can stay, but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit has to go!"😂😂😂
But with the new iPhone 16 out, will people who use that now be called AI posters?
Believe it or not, I brought up a similar concern in our ongoing staff AI discussions. Just speaking for myself here, but in the future it may be hard to avoid AI-generated or AI-assisted content. Apple and Microsoft seem to think this is what we all want and appear to be on a course to deeply integrate it into everything (sort of like spell-checking). Maybe the forum software itself will even add some AI features to the editor someday?
I wouldn't expect this to happen with the iPhone 16, but it sure seems to be direction things are headed, unfortunately.
I wouldn't expect this to happen with the iPhone 16, but it sure seems to be direction things are headed, unfortunately.
Not only is this post hilarious, it also recalls (all too uncomfortably) to mind the unfortunate and unpleasant experience of Gregor Samsa....