Bot accounts. How do they work and how can people tell bot comments from human comments?
In: Engineering
Somewhat recently, there has been a large influx of automated accounts that use ChatGPT to make comments. There are even quite a few in this subreddit.
They scan post titles and use it as the prompt, then reply “accordingly.” You can easily tell bots apart from humans based on what they focus on in their comment, their grammar, word usage, and punctuation. ChatGPT accounts frequently respond like the post is a direct conversation with them, use more energetic wording, and overall feel more sanitized. Check out an obvious bot account, sometimes they’ll comment on media posts with vague titles and respond pretty terribly. For example, a common bot comment in r/Starterpacks is “Ah, the [title]!”
Here is ChatGPT’s response to your post title:
> Sure! Bot accounts are automated programs designed to perform tasks on the internet, like posting comments or sending messages, without human intervention. They work by following pre-defined instructions or algorithms.
> To tell if a comment is from a bot or a human, here are some clues:
>1. **Repetitiveness**: Bots often post similar or identical comments repeatedly because they follow a set script.
>2. **Timing**: Bots can post at odd times or with unnatural frequency, unlike humans who usually comment throughout the day.
>3. **Content**: Bot comments may lack depth or relevance to the discussion, often being generic or off-topic.
>4. **Language**: Bots might use strange syntax or grammar errors, though some are programmed to mimic human speech more accurately.
>5. **Profile Information**: Check the account’s profile—if it’s incomplete, lacks personal details, or uses a generic username, it could be a bot.
> Platforms use algorithms to detect and remove bot-generated content, but it’s still possible to encounter them. Being aware of these signs can help you identify bot comments online!
Note that the AI mostly failed to respond properly, and missed the context of your post. Only a couple of the tips are relevant for modern bot accounts. You can also see that the structure is very list-esque. This is extremely common in question subreddits.
people make “official” bots like that periodic table bot bot, these sare mostly helpful and easy to tell. I wont talk about those. These just use the official api.
reddit has a way for you to send a mesaage to be posted. you dont actually have to use the reddit app to do it, you can just send the eifht netwoek packets from any program.
people also make harmful bots that farm karma to look like real acounts. once the acount looks like a real account it switches to posting advertising or propoganda.
the easieat way I have found to spot them is to look for comments that look copy-pasted from somewhere else. they often dont make sense. generally bots in phase 1 make reposts from sub/top, sometimes with the title changed to the top comment, or 1 nonesense comment in the thread. I find these bots tend to have 6 month old acounts, about 1000 karma, and their oldest post is last week in of the general reddits.
You use to be able to spot them because they would not reply, but now with chatgpt out there it is getting much harder
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