Large proportions of users posting on Twitter – now X – about the Chinese balloon that drifted over the US and Canada in 2023 were bots attempting to shape the debate

Armies of bots battled on Twitter over Chinese spy balloon incident::Large proportions of users posting on Twitter – now X – about the Chinese balloon that drifted over the US and Canada in 2023 were bots attempting to shape the debate

  • tsonfeir@lemm.eeEnglish
    22·
    11 months ago

    The future is our AI talking to their AI on social media filling it with garbage in place of us while we do all the manual labor for the rich. AI sure is doing a good job avoiding work. Gen-AI is just fucking lazy.

  • WatDabney@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    93·
    11 months ago

    No surprise there.

    There was never even the slightest chance that that balloon could pass through US airspace unobserved, and China possesses FAR more effective, secure and difficult-at-best methods with which to spy. So very obviously, it was intended to be discovered. And presuming that to be the case, the important bit then was the reaction its discovery would trigger.

    So it was safe to presume from the start (as I did) that some significant part of the social media noise about it was simple astroturfing explicitly intended solely to further whatever response whoever wanted.