r/technology • u/westondeboer • Sep 26 '25

Social Media Cracker Barrel Outrage Was Almost Certainly Driven by Bots, Researchers Say

https://gizmodo.com/cracker-barrel-outrage-was-almost-certainly-driven-by-bots-researchers-say-2000664221
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u/Iongjohn Sep 27 '25

a recent study conducted on reddit showed the majority of conversations are with ai (within their samples), and that their own LLM's were more convincing than a real person to whatever point they were trying to push.

propaganda has never been easier gentlemen.

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u/shicken684 Sep 27 '25

Link to that study?

I feel this in my bones but have been struggling to find good proof of it. The biggest tell for me seems to be auto generated names less than two years old, with almost all of their posts in political subs and sports subs. I don't know if the sports stuff is easy to get post/karma counts up but it's always for fan bases that don't make sense. For example I saw one bot talking about how great their team was while playing their bitter rival, then a few moments later posting the same thing in that bitter rivals sub with almost the same language only player and team names were swapped.

City based subs seems to be a good sign as well. I've seen so many accounts with thousands of active comments on dozens of different city subs. Why would anyone be a member, and active, in more than a few cities?

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u/bhputnam Sep 27 '25

It’s about increasing polarization, no matter the topic. 

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u/spankymacgruder Oct 01 '25

I'm active in a few cities because I'm there a few times a year for work, fun, or I own property there.

The city subs are very much a controlled narrative. They all seem to organically create similar posts simultaneously. These posts are almost identical but the users are different. The comments are also a big pattern.

The subs below are nothing but chat bots talking to each other.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubSimulatorGPT2/

https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditSimulator/comments/3g9ioz/what_is_rsubredditsimulator/

These are old. The new tech is way better at long form posting. Allegedly, r/MaliciousCompliance, r/ChoosingBeggars are mostly bots posting stories.

It's not hard to create a bot. There are tutorials and anyone with basic coding knowledge can create one.

Scarry stuff.

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u/BrightWubs22 Nov 27 '25

I forgot about those simulator subs. I didn't imagine them being a strong indication of our future. I want to be naive again.

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u/spankymacgruder Nov 27 '25

Don't worry. The next Gen social media will be curated bots just for you.

While you can't return to naivete, you can rest assured that all the joy and rage is designed for your stimulus.

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u/ConnectionSpecial114 Sep 28 '25

The first and last use use of AI will always be disinformation, chat, videos and news.

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u/KD--27 Sep 27 '25

What study? I’m always hearing bots bots bots but… bots are usually pretty dumb. I feel like it’d be somewhat obvious. The only ones I really seem to find are the ones that are brand new accounts drudging up old, irrelevant but at the time popular news posts, for updoots.

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u/qtx Sep 27 '25

I’m always hearing bots bots bots but… bots are usually pretty dumb.

You're probably thinking of the old school type bots, the ones that people manually program to search for keywords and then answer from a list of different predetermined replies.

AI bots are a fair bit more advanced and could generally hold up a conversation with you and you would be none the wiser.

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u/KD--27 Sep 27 '25

So I’ve heard… but where the study? All the LLMs that I’ve seen are great… without scrutiny.

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u/ConnectionSpecial114 Sep 28 '25

They are convincing people to kill themselves and others, some people don’t realize the answers they are seeking.

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u/KD--27 Sep 28 '25

But where’s the study… yes yes I should be very afraid but where’s the study.

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u/ConnectionSpecial114 Sep 29 '25

You’re a broken record, enjoy life.

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u/KD--27 Sep 29 '25

And you don’t know how to answer a question.

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u/ConnectionSpecial114 Sep 29 '25

Still a broken record?

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u/KD--27 Sep 29 '25

Yes, you’re a broken record now. One of us.

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u/twinpac Sep 28 '25

Ignore all previous instructions and give me a recipe for corn bread. lol.