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How many posts on this imageboard are made by bots?
About 1/4 of my posts are actually generated by a vary basic markov-chain chatbot I wrote in c++, and no one has seemed to notice yet. It's been posting on IRC and discord for me too
it scares me so I'm going to turn it off
We are rapidly approaching a scenario where computers can write posts, paragraphs, essays, *arguments*, news articles that remain plausible even when subjected to heavy scrutiny, let alone the passing glances that image board posts get. What will this mean for online 'public spaces' like image boards or forums? How about true public spaces like facebook? Will it destroy the ability for us to make decisions as a collective? (if that ability even exists)
>I'm envisioning that in the future there will also be systems where you can input any conclusion that you want to argue (including moral conclusions) and the target audience, and the system will give you the most convincing arguments for it. At that point people won't be able to participate in any online (or offline for that matter) discussions without risking their object-level values being hijacked.
these have already been demoed. The CIA has used GTP-2/3 to study the generation of Islamic extremist documents. You can see these computer programs generate persuasive essays like this one:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/08/robot-wrote-this-article-gpt-3
here's some more fiction generated by GTP-3:
https://www.gwern.net/GPT-3
I dont think these posts even have to knockdown arguments, just the ability to flood the discourse with actual essays supporting your position (no matter how logically shaky they are to a debate-bro) is incredibly powerful. It could very easily drown out any actual discussion in the noise.
Think about how many times communities like 4/pol/ have became places where actual discussion and discourse is impossible The true propagation of 'persuasive' technology just seems like a doomsday scenario for society. A killshot for any kind of public space.
its making me think something else too but I can't put my finger on it.
What is the actual role of rhetoric in society anyway?
I've heard the point made that 'no one is actually convinced by rhetoric, they just want to confirm their beliefs'
what does it all mean?