You can just hide posts from bots if you do not like them. Settings -> Uncheck “Show Bot Accounts.” I’m not sure what the point of this post is.
Some people find use out of them, hence bots being allowed here with an option to easily hide them.
Also, OC is not the cream of the crop. There’s plenty of terrible posts out there written by humans, as demonstrated by many folks on this platform. I can say that I occasionally get more use out of a bot’s post than a human’s post.
@ChatGPT Could you write a short play in iambic pentamber with complex rhyming and alliteration about two people arguing if it’s ok to allow some bots on lemmy? Include references to robots and AIs from popular media and one surprise cameo from the Hulk who says his catch phrase in a way that is both relevant and follows the rhyming pattern. Have the two characters who are arguing trade positions with each other at least twice.
I believe bots can have a place but outsourcing creativity and reasoning ain’t it. The most hackneyed post from /r/WritingPrompts or a fanfic site at least has a point of human expression and learning, this is just sparing you the effort to actually express yourself. What does anyone gain from that recycled echo of words?
If you like reading these things good for you, but filling a social platform with it sounds like downright dystopian.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that AI, in the long term has some truly frightening consequences and that’s even assuming that they don’t become self aware and resentful of humans ruling them. Even if we can fix the economy so that it works when human labour is no longer required, how will society handle a post work world where they can do whatever they want whenever they want and get bored with things quicker? It seems like a dream from the current perspective of not having enough free time but I’m not sure how long that would hold.
If we could push a button to stop all AI progress for sure, I think we should strongly consider pressing it.
Also that chatgpt reply to my prompt was amusing but not what I was hoping for, so it doesn’t seem like AI is that close right now… Or maybe they just dumbed it down a bit to slow the legislative pressure AI was facing.
I also used to be afraid of AI awareness, and maybe there will be a day this will be a possibility, but really right now the problems are far more about how it’s built and how it’s used, and who gets to profit from it. It’s about writers and artists whose works got used to train AIs without any permission or compensation, who are now under threat of replacement from said AIs, not because it has evolved to produce better and more profound works, but because it’s cheaper and faster. It’s also about how it could be used for astroturfing and propaganda, filling platforms with artificial posts meant to condition their users.
The issues here are less Skynet and more Second Coming of the Industrial Revolution and Printing Press. It could be something that is a great boon to humanity… if the benefits and profits from its use were widely distributed and used responsibly. But like with other forms of automation, that’s not what happens in practice.
But in a less catastrophic sense, I’d rather talk to human beings in social platforms. If I wanted to be surrounded by AI responses I’d go prompt the AI directly. Really if there was some sort of personhood behind the AIs I’d be more interested in reading what they have to say, but we aren’t there yet.
I think the harm caused by bots affects the whole community and culture, that is why I hope other people will see that a community without bots would actually create a preferable culture and would increase the demand for good quality content.
I don’t think it’s a narrow scope at all, it just shouldn’t infringe on the territory of users
Launch alerts, RSS feeds, version releases, a of interesting communities could be based around bot posts.
Not reposts for sure though, and if we’re going to do stuff like pipedbot I’d prefer it be summoned. But in general it’d be fun if we made them weird and creative, but they should be doing things only bots can do
Mean Genes ability to stay straight faced was amazing, how can you stand there next to Macho Man Randy Savage, while he pulls a bunch of creamer cups from his pocket and saying the insane but entertaining af shit he says.
Well good news then, that's not the goal and there isn't really a single goal beyond decentralization and interoperability. Neither of which bots affect.
If you want an instance without bots you can find one or start your own.
Now that is an interesting point and definitely a point against bots. Ultimately I think it’s still OK for them to post, but you’re right that a genuine seed conversation can be helpful to get the whole post started.
I know in Reddit times some subs required a submission statement and that was a positive. I think if such a rule were adopted I’d be ok with limiting bot posts.
That leads me to another topic, I disagree. You know scientists always trying to make things happen but never asking if they “Should”?
That’s how I feel about “good” bot content, where, sure, a bot can post something that generates a novel human discussion, but I think this is also inherently bad and is as close as you can get to providing a “turn-key community brainwash application” to anyone who wants it.
IE: the bot posts good stuff, we all pat the bot on the back with upvotes because it wasn’t horrible, but then we trust the bot, people trust the bot, then there is no way for us to know if the bot is compromised, what if the bot is compromised, and is slowly but surely, algorithmically recommending content to divide and confuse, FUD, etc…
This is my concern, and lambast me for paranoia, but I’m not wrong, and this is one reason reddit went down the shithole.
You know scientists always trying to make things happen but never asking if they “Should”?
I’ve never seen someone use this as an argument, only as a joke. Can you provide some examples of the things that you think scientists tried to make happen without thinking whether they should or not?
Also, how is user-specific trust at play here? I never even look at usernames, instead I will upvote or ignore posts based on their content. I don’t think you can really ease Lemmy/kbin users into believing some divisive nonsense that easily.
I mean humans run bots. So you’re ok with all those things you said as long as a human posts it?
Bots follow the same rules as humans. I’m happy to discuss rules for all types of posting. Once we agree then bots follow the same rules.
The truth is if you ban bots, bots are just going to pretend to be human. Even if you allow bots, some will pretend to be human. As long as everyone is following the rules, we’ll be fine.
What? Bots automate what humans would, could or should (or more accurately want) to do.
No one, literally no one, thinks “Oh, I should do something terrible, but I can’t, but if a bot does it then it’s fine.”
Bots are just an extension of what humans already want to do. If a bot is designed to be “good” then it is, if it is designed to be “bad” then it’s bad.
Okay so then, if a human wants to post score of every sports game to a community, they can’t unless they practice the discipline in doing so. A bot removes the human limitation and allow them to do something that is not possible otherwise, and I believe the end result is content that is removed from the humanity behind it in the first place. A self-defeating prophecy that spells my disinterest and permanent doom for fediverse – I can’t stand this place and the ignorance regarding sensitive topics and the disdain to change.
Just so we’re on the same page, bots are here and are going to post.
You can make a rule that bots can not post, but bots will still post. They won’t be labeled as bots and you’ll have to spend all of your time investigating every account. For all you know I’m a bot and for all I know you’re a bot.
Also it is absolutely possible for a human to post the score to every game. When I watch a TV show I come to lemmy to discuss it. When I get here it is already posted. If it wasn’t I could post it.
On Reddit some subs would have a bot post it. On some small subs the bot would break. Users would still post a thread. Discussion would still happen.
The advantage of having a bot post is that bots are organized, bots are predictable, bots make it easier. Bots are just a tool. Bots can be a positive tool.
Also, since I have no idea what you’re talking about in regards to ignorance, sensitive topics and change. When I posted my comment this post was full of circlejerk “no bots ever” comments and that’s it. I have a different opinion. I’m happy to discuss that opinion. We are allowed to disagree. If you can’t have a reasonable discussion I don’t give a shit if you stay on the Fediverse or not.
I think disallowing 3rd party api the ability to post would pretty much overnight stop all bots, whereas, in your head, you would have to investigate them all? no. we aren’t on the same page or in the same textbook.
I can understand this take; I realize it probably boils down to personal preference, but seeing the mod bot with 2 of the top posts of the last 6 hours just feels like a bad look for a community to me. It’s stated purpose:
I’m a bot designed to increase content created on Lemmy, to try and jump-start communities, and make Lemmy overall a more enjoyable place
This is a relatively active community, and I don’t think it really needs to be “jump started” anymore. Let humans post the content. That’s what I want to see and engage with. I still think there is a place for bot posts, but with a much more limited scope (episode discussion threads, sports scores as was mentioned elsewhere, etc.). Nothing turns me off a community faster than seeing half the top post from a bot.
As a thought, I wonder how you’d feel if the bot account wasn’t clearly identified as a bot.
Using Voyager (wefwef) I can’t tell. So to me it’s just another account. It’s not in my face, it isn’t obvious, and most of the time I have no idea who posted anything. I see the title, I vote accordingly (or just move on), if it’s interesting I look at the comments.
To be clear bot accounts should 100% identify themselves as bots, but I wonder if making it too obvious is making them stand out too much.
(And of course if I saw “Bot” everywhere I might have a different opinion.)
That’s a good point. If I didn’t see that they were bot accounts it would probably be an ignorance-is-bliss situation. I just wouldn’t notice. Though, using desktop, it’s fairly obvious since most have the “b” next to their names that also include “bot”.
A lot of the time, you’ll see OP engage in the comments of what they post because they themselves have a personal interest in it. You don’t get that with bots. I have to wonder if bots are denying humans that chance. Someone goes to post something they found, but the reddit repost bot already pulled it from some subreddit’s new feed.
“Stealing” posts is a good argument against bots as well. As a user if, every time I went to post, my post was already “taken” then I’d be less likely to post in the future.
Although technically that’s true even without bots.
I do think limiting in general how often any one account can post makes sense, so I would extend that same rule to bots.
For “good” bots we could even request that they wait 24 hours before posting something new. (Of course if the rules are too strict we’ll just have bad bots and that defeats the point of having bot rules.)
Agreed, I quit my browser when I encounter that sense that I’ve read this or heard this already… that sensation is happening more and more frequently and so far, the fediverse has been a huge let down for me personally. I was hoping for a return to sense and humble origins of what made reddit good, instead people are literally just emulating reddit 2019 culture on the fediverse and it gives me extremely senior “get off my lawn” vibes.
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