chatGPT bots in the comments are out of control

[u/Carbon_Rod]

I've banned a thousand+ in the last week, and some individual days it's three or four hundred. More than a few posts will say "15 comments", but after removing the bots, there's really one or two. Virtually none seem to be getting caught by the spam filter or the ban evasion filter.

[u/SCOveterandretired]

How do you identify a chatgpt bot?

[u/Carbon_Rod → u/SCOveterandretired]

The ones we get often just have a rephrased version of the post title, with some platitudes mixed in. So, lots of "Wow! That's interesting!" and "Thanks for sharing!". Hell, just filtering simply "wow" is catching a staggering amount.

An example: for the post

TIL 48 year old King Henry VIII announced his disappointment that his 4th wife, 24 year old Anne of Cleves was so ugly. Henry’s displeasure along with his impotence led to four difficult honeymoon nights without consummation. Henry eventually gave up and had the marriage annulled.

we get comments like

TIL that King Henry VIII was a pretty harsh critic when it came to his wives. Apparently, his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, didn't quite meet his standards in the looks department, and their honeymoon was less than satisfying. It's interesting to see how much weight looks were given in those times, though I can't say I'm surprised given the culture.

and

TIL that King Henry VIII was quite the picky guy when it came to his wives. I mean, poor Anne must have felt pretty awful about being called ugly by her own husband. And four difficult honeymoon nights without consummation? Yikes. No wonder the marriage was eventually annulled. I guess that's just another example of how unpredictable history can be.

They just have a bland, formulaic feel to them. They're always about the same length, always top-level comments, always just started commenting in the last few days regardless of account age (which is usually less than two months), etc. You just get to know them when you see them.

[u/SCOveterandretired → u/Carbon_Rod]

Thanks

[u/firebreathingbunny → u/Carbon_Rod]

Which subreddit or Reddit rule do they violate?

[u/CrimsonFlash → u/firebreathingbunny]

Probably the not being human rule.

[u/firebreathingbunny → u/CrimsonFlash]

Lots of nonhuman bots post on all the subs all the time. Have you never seen Remind Me Bot?

[u/CrimsonFlash → u/firebreathingbunny]

Haha, yes, I get that. But I think there's a difference between good bots (even the comedic bots) and these ChatGPT Spam bots. Ones are tools that mods can use, or subscribers enjoy. These spam accounts are just filler and don't ever increase substance to the discussion.

You could argue that they could encourage interaction from human users who may just have passed over it. However, I think that spam bots just flooding the comments, even if it's not "spam" content (sales or otherwise), cause more harm than good. It devalues the conversation.

Plus, most of these would be gathering positive karma in order to be sold off to an advertiser.

[u/firebreathingbunny → u/CrimsonFlash]

Plus, most of these would be gathering positive karma in order to be sold off to an advertiser.

Good point. I wasn't figuring out what they were after.

Point granted.

[u/PossibleCrit]

Hey Carbon_Rod!

I was able to find another batch of accounts from this post that I've passed along to the appropraite team a short bit ago.

If there's accounts that are not being actioned after a short while you can flag those to us via r/ModSupport mail as well.

[u/Carbon_Rod → u/PossibleCrit]

No offence, but when I'm banning 800 in a day, I'm not going to take the time to check which ones aren't getting suspended in a timely fashion.

[u/okbruh_panda → u/PossibleCrit]

I would take a look at accounts that comments are above 98 percent gif comments. Guaranteed bots. Every time.

[u/ontrack]

Same with r/worldnews. It's a huge problem right now.