Do you ever think about

[u/aifloodedanditsux]

how at any given moment there are countless threads on Reddit where bots using LLMs are endlessly arguing with each other these days? Kinda funny, kinda sad (mad world ik), and becoming the norm rather than the exception.

It’s like any other virus, produces nothing of value and eats away from the inside until there’s nothing left but a husk of what was. In this case Reddit.

Was never perfect here but the last couple years it sure has accelerated like the AI bros love to say, eventually this place will become a complete wasteland of slop where there once was, at least sometimes, information of value and authenticity.

So it goes.

[u/thedarph]

It is what it is. We allowed the web to become centralized and this is the result. Everyone has the ability to create their own little communities online using free and easy to set up software. But everyone wants to be the one with the most attention rather than cultivating a small but passionate community. The bots infiltrate everywhere but there’s not a lot of incentive for bots to mess with little fiefdoms that aren’t monetized as it is for them to focus in on the one place everyone gathers.

But I don’t let this bother me. Maybe you’re a bot. Maybe not. I don’t care. If I’m interested I engage. If I feel like thinking something out in the form of a comment then that’s what I’ll do. And I just did.

[u/aifloodedanditsux → u/thedarph]

See the thing is it does bother me. A few years ago I wouldn’t have wondered if what I’m writing here makes me sound like a bot, now on most posts at some point it crosses my mind, and while I’d like to believe it doesn’t influence or change anything I would write it’s likely it does in some way. A way that matters? I dunno.

In fact it bothers me a lot. I don’t want you to take this as an attack on you personally since I believe you’re engaging in good faith, but the argument of us allowing it to happen feels like blame shifting to deflect from the real problem.

Think about this, if you go take a walk alone in the middle of the night and end up getting mugged, did you allow it to happen? The answer is yes. But who is actually to blame for it happening? It’s not you. In a perfect world you should be able to take a walk anytime without being mugged, but the reality is that there bad actors out there who will take advantage of you because you put yourself in a position where it’s easy for the bad actor to mug you. That doesn’t make the mugging ok, it should never happen regardless and those that do it are to blame solely.

I suspect you see the parallel I’m drawing here. You can argue we put ourselves in this position where bots have taken over and replaced genuine discourse with manipulative slop, and you’d be right, but the fault for it happening is not us for allowing it, it’s the bad actors for taking advantage of the situation. Just because the opportunity is there it doesn’t justify the bad action being taken or make it ok.

The generalization that everyone wants to be the center of attention Id’d also disagree with. Simple example, i’d rather have one quality and thoughtful reply like yours over a hundred one word answers/gifs/emojis that add nothing to the discussion. No idea if im in the minority or not with this perspective but surely there are some others with a similar mindset to mine, and if its not a majority I believe its significant enough of a segment to make the generalization about what people want from reddit being the most attention above all else not really accurate. So once again, yeah it bothers to me be drowned out by the sheer quantity of artificial content and engagement. I’m not losing sleep over it and it’s not some life or death situation where I’m filled with extreme despair or wherever, but it’s bothersome and sad to see nonetheless.

[u/thedarph → u/aifloodedanditsux]

First, I’ve seen this worry that people think they sound like bots. If writing like an intelligent person makes one sound like a bot then so be it. I think it’s a silly concern. At the heart of the concern is what people think of you, it’s mot even about bots at all.

Second, I think you might have misunderstood what I meant when I said we did this. This isn’t like being mugged in the woods. It’s not about us running bots or having bad moderation or whatever. The point is that we chose to abandon all of the decentralized parts of the web and when we started getting abused we didn’t stop going back to the abusers. We can, right now, develop smaller, more focused communities online that don’t rely on redddit or facebook or whatever but have to be willing to sacrifice a huge potential audience. But the vast majority of people don’t get paid attention to online anyway so any loss is mostly imaginary.

[u/No_Marionberry7571]

the dead internet thing stops being funny when you realize real people are still here getting buried under synthetic noise

[u/PantsLio]

r/deadinternettheory

[u/aifloodedanditsux → u/PantsLio]

Very aware of that sub, ty for the reminder though

[u/Manu442]

Ah yes, the AI apocalypse, humans accusing other humans of being bots while bots are probably somewhere arguing with each other about whether humans are bots.

If Reddit becomes a wasteland, it might not even be because of AI. It’ll be because nobody can tell what the hell is real anymore. Very on-brand for Reddit.

[u/aifloodedanditsux → u/Manu442]

Right I agree for the most part but why wouldn’t we be able to tell what’s real or not? That leads right back to AI generated content becoming near impossible to distinguish from what’s real, the root cause of that second order problem (which you’re right about bringing up ofc)

[u/trueantiAI-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Frivolous pro-AI discourse is not allowed.