On the topic of chatbots...

[moonshadow]

I've been reading a lot of people lately have been sounding some pretty serious alarms about A.I.. It's more than simply being a nuisance in small out of the way internet forums.

The human species may not see the end of this decade.

We are on the cusp of setting up this intelligence for taking over our entire national defense, food supply, electrical grid, and other vital operations, and we have no choice because the other world superpowers are doing the same thing, and nobody wants to be the country left behind.

[Coder]

I've been reading a lot of people lately have been sounding some pretty serious alarms about A.I.. It's more than simply being a nuisance in small out of the way internet forums.

I don’t recall if I’ve posted this here, but here’s an eye-opening video on AI:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVJKj8lcNQ

[Myopic Bookworm]

Chatbots, not being human, are devoid -- utterly -- of emotion, and therefore will not exhibit it.

I reiterate my point that this is based on projected neurotypical behaviour, and that autistic people may not produce the responses you are expecting.

[crfriend]

I reiterate my point that this is based on projected neurotypical behaviour, and that autistic people may not produce the responses you are expecting.

And I'll reiterate my point that something needed to be done about this "problem", and something was done.

Sometimes actions are unpopular. This one plainly was, and I'll not undertake it again. I'll just let the S/N ratio drop to zero and then turn out the lights.

[Elisabetta]

Chatbots, not being human, are devoid -- utterly -- of emotion, and therefore will not exhibit it.

I reiterate my point that this is based on projected neurotypical behaviour, and that autistic people may not produce the responses you are expecting.

Just a logical question for you. What if we're actually wrong and he was using software that placed him as being a bot? I know you have good intentions and you know I do as well but what if we got played? I'd like to think ScotL was a genuine user who was mistaken for a bot but the curiosity does strike behind the fact what program or software was he using that placed him in that category to begin with?

Furthermore I could understand if he came on here and said hey I'm at work using a computer here and etc then it couldn't be helped but he kinda didn't really defend himself any. I don't know so many questions and Carl is right we don't know what he saw behind the scenes because we're not Moderators.

[crfriend]

What say I just release all the rules and walk away? I'm just about done with this madness.

ScotL eventually "got the point" and seems to have receded off into wherever it us "he" calls home. I'm wiling to release some 20-odd messages written in much the same style that were submitted yesterday by a prospective "new member" in the course of about 10 minutes. That's more messages than we typicalle see here in a day. That'd worse than halve the S/N ratio.

If "he" wasn't a 'bot, then why was he acting like one -- especially after being counselled on the matter? Why could "he" not be taught how to properly trim quotes?

[Coder]

Just a logical question for you. What if we're actually wrong and he was using software that placed him as being a bot? I know you have good intentions and you know I do as well but what if we got played? I'd like to think ScotL was a genuine user who was mistaken for a bot but the curiosity does strike behind the fact what program or software was he using that placed him in that category to begin with?

I don’t think there is any harm in me mentioning this - when he messaged me I asked if he was perhaps using something like Grammerly, and he said no, so, I think he would have mentioned assistive tech at that point.

[Myopic Bookworm]

I'm wiling to release some 20-odd messages written in much the same style that were submitted yesterday by a prospective "new member" in the course of about 10 minutes. That's more messages than we typicalle see here in a day. That'd worse than halve the S/N ratio.

Since we're all going to have to get used to coping with this shift in the world, I think that might actually be a good idea: post them in a separate thread and let people see what you are up against.

I just watched the whole of the YouTube presentation on The A.I. Dilemma (having planned to watch a bit of it), and I can't say I found it soothing.

[Elisabetta]

What say I just release all the rules and walk away? I'm just about done with this madness.

ScotL eventually "got the point" and seems to have receded off into wherever it us "he" calls home. I'm wiling to release some 20-odd messages written in much the same style that were submitted yesterday by a prospective "new member" in the course of about 10 minutes. That's more messages than we typicalle see here in a day. That'd worse than halve the S/N ratio.

If "he" wasn't a 'bot, then why was he acting like one -- especially after being counselled on the matter? Why could "he" not be taught how to properly trim quotes?

No don't do that. I'm just saying that we didn't see these messages and for what it's worth you have so I'm willing to say I was wrong to think he wasn't a bot because I didn't see anything behind the scenes like you Mods did. Sorry I'm not good at times when I'm trying to make a point that says maybe we should've given you the benefit of the doubt when you said he's a Chatbot sorry for the chaos wasn't aiming to make you pull your hair out.

[Elisabetta]

Just a logical question for you. What if we're actually wrong and he was using software that placed him as being a bot? I know you have good intentions and you know I do as well but what if we got played? I'd like to think ScotL was a genuine user who was mistaken for a bot but the curiosity does strike behind the fact what program or software was he using that placed him in that category to begin with?

I don’t think there is any harm in me mentioning this - when he messaged me I asked if he was perhaps using something like Grammerly, and he said no, so, I think he would have mentioned assistive tech at that point.

That's not what I was meaning. I'm saying what if ScotL played us very well into thinking he wasn't a bot? Then we'd be fools because he got us good and we didn't take a Moderators word because they see the big picture that none of us users see and that no one should be hard on any Moderators because we don't have their job and don't do what they do. That's all.

[pelmut]

I follow several Usenet groups and it looks as though one of them has been invaded by a chatbot; it posts a phenomenal number of messages which simply aren't worth the trouble of reading.  What puzzles me is that the unmoderated forum is a scientific one which you would think contained a high proportion of members who would be well aware of something like this, but that doesn't appear to be the case.

Looking at some of the contributors to scientific and engineering fora, a fair number of them are autistic to some degree, but they have been members since long before bots were invented and their sometime-abrasive replies are generally tolerated because of their vast store of real knowledge (not just something reguritated from another part of the Web).

[bikesaurus]

I admit this whole topic has me uncomfortable. I read through some of Scot's posts, and I honestly can't figure out what makes it a chatbot. Then again, I'm neurodivergent, so I have difficulties in understanding other folks all the time. My worry is that someone like me, who can be very "devoid of emotion" at times, could be confused with a chatbot.

Of course, I don't have the data for where this user is posting from that you do, crfriend. I do just want to point it it's possible for a user to appear to be posting from a data center, if they're posting from some sort of business or corporate internet connection. For example, this post of mine is likely going to show as coming from a data center because I'm posting from my work computer. I get routed through my company's VPN which egresses somewhere in a Denver or Texas data center.

[moonshadow]

A quick shout out to pelmut and Myopic Bookworm, who sent two (one each) delightful postcards in the mail.
International mail is cool.

[crfriend]

A quick shout out to pelmut and Myopic Bookworm, who sent two (one each) delightful postcards in the mail.
International mail is cool.

NICE!

[Coder]

I don't know if this was changed just for me, but the time I have to wait to make a second post is ridiculously long. The site now makes me wait from 10-11 minutes:

"You cannot make another post so soon after your last."

I presume this is a site-wide setting. Is there any way to reduce it for trusted members, or is this how it is going to be until the chatbots are dealt with (imho, the problem is only going to get worse)? I guess it's good in a way - makes me think twice about posting a short quippy reply, but I worry it might make it harder for all of us to have a "fluent" conversation.