What is the purpose of youtube commenting robots (bot applications) ?
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We all look at the comments on social networks... lets be honest, everyone does.
Most people believe each one of the comments is made by a real person. However, a very large percentage are actually "robot comments" or made by a "comment ro(bot)"
In simple terms a comments bot is a computer program designed with the purpose of finding, commenting and replying to certain videos/posts that fit it requirements. The program first finds
a video or post page based on the subject it is looking for, once it finds the page it "reads" all the comments and determines if anyone is commenting or discussing anything based on its final objective.
If for example, the comment bot is built to look at all videos/posts titles relating to the topic/subject/video title...
"University Students Protest High Book Fees"
...and its final objective is to reply rudely or negatively to comments of those in favor of protesting and/or who are agreeing that book fees are too high... with an emphasis on pursuading the readers/commentors not to take part in the protest.
The comment bot will read the comments and in this example reply to the comments with the most total activity/likes/shares.
Lets say an actual person wrote this comment...
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"Good job guys, I'm glad you took the initiative to protest at your school, I'm organizeing a demo at our school also. You guys are spectacular, thanks for the motivation and tips."
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The comment bot decided that this comment met the requirements based on the content in the comment and will now generate and post a reply in accord with its final objective.
The comment bot could now reply to the comment...
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"I'm all for a peaceful protest, but in the last 2 weeks I heard 2 people died and tons of people arrested at demonstrations. Also, I think the book prices are fair because the books are such good quality."
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So this robot has effectively started in a positive manner in general "agreement". People dying and being arrested is added to:
-persuade other readers not to be involved in this activity;
-to change the overall topic of discussion;
-creating and instilling emotional responses or doubt;
Finally the bot justified the pricing of books, attempting to motivate/suggest to the reader to adopt/form this type of passive persona/opinion.
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The end effect is the comment bot has broadcast the complete opposite of the video/post topic is trying to address to the viewer.
The topic of: "University Students Protest High Book Fees" based on the comment bots reply is now broadcasting "Don't protest, you may die or be arrested, book fees are NOT too high"
The video topic is now totally undermined by the comment bot and many public viewers will see this opinion and be influenced to not participate in the protest. The public viewer will then lose interest in an actual topic which should concern them and move along to the next distraction completely oblivious to the fact they have just read a computer generated comment built to influence them in this very specific way.
========================================================
In conclusion:
This example is shown to give a very specific example of how artificial comments in a false reality can alter our decision making in reality.
If you look at "controversial" videos for example Miley Cyrus doing something sexual... you can nearly always find comments justifing her behaviour as "...shes just living her life..." or "...she works hard, she should be able to enjoy herself" Alternatively, if you look at religious videos of people converting to different faiths or discovering God you will notice more complex comments designed to confuse the reader, to belittle the video author or general ignorance and rude language in a slanderous manner towards an individual or the entire group itself. Next time you look at the comments, you will start to see this pattern emerge. It is actually not difficult to achieve or build a comment bot with software publicly available, that requires basically no computer programming experience, it has been available for at least a decade. (EZ Macros Builder)
Although this subject was written in 2017, you can find military based, private and government projects from 2009 (and earlier) which designed 10 or more "types" of human-like comment bot personalities built to target and influence specific online activity.
Example of the "types" of personalities built.
1. A "happy" comment bot
2. A "paranoid" comment bot
3. A "optomistic" comment bot
4. A "passive" comment bot
5. A "pro-USA" comment bot
6. A "anti-USA" comment bot
7. A "sycophant" comment bot
8. A "highly religious" comment bot
9. A "moderately religious" comment bot
10. A "radical religious" comment bot
Each of the above are only examples, the actual "personalities" of the created bots are much more dynamic, meaning, they would be built to be "flexible" in certain cases. They would also be smart enough to continue commenting, replying and communicating on other social networks (adding new posts, posting photos to timelines, adding friends, etc.). The bot could transition to emails if required, as if they were actual people. As of this writing, artificial intelligence can "listen" to your voice and respond to your questions with the voice of a real human in many languages and accents. You may actually be speaking to "fake" tech support more often than you think... no wonder they are so inconsiderate ;)
Solving the issues:
If we are able to remove distractions blocking our vision, look up, notice our situation and surroundings more clearly, we can think of many obvious topics we should actually be discussing which could benefit our life, our families, our communities and humanity in general, talking about the latest "cute cat video" should raise a flag that we are not cognisant of our own reality and we are actually living out someone elses ideas.
References:
AI Bots Military Project (search)
IBM Watson TTS (Text To Speech)
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Other questions to consider:
Where could the countless hours "playing" on devices been more effectively used?
Are our decision making abilities being corruputed by viewing these types of comments?
If someone was in agreement that "book fees are too high" before reading comments and afterwards "decided" that they are actually fair and not high, could we consider that person was "shocked by fear" to revoke their first initial rational decision or what happened to that initial thought?
Can people critically think for themselves?
How much of a persons personality is built by ones own reason and thoughts and how much of the personality is built by information they are provided and taught?When is the last time I thought of something myself? When is the last time I did something creative without any outside help?
===========================================================
We all look at the comments on social networks... lets be honest, everyone does.
Most people believe each one of the comments is made by a real person. However, a very large percentage are actually "robot comments" or made by a "comment ro(bot)"
In simple terms a comments bot is a computer program designed with the purpose of finding, commenting and replying to certain videos/posts that fit it requirements. The program first finds
a video or post page based on the subject it is looking for, once it finds the page it "reads" all the comments and determines if anyone is commenting or discussing anything based on its final objective.
If for example, the comment bot is built to look at all videos/posts titles relating to the topic/subject/video title...
"University Students Protest High Book Fees"
...and its final objective is to reply rudely or negatively to comments of those in favor of protesting and/or who are agreeing that book fees are too high... with an emphasis on pursuading the readers/commentors not to take part in the protest.
The comment bot will read the comments and in this example reply to the comments with the most total activity/likes/shares.
Lets say an actual person wrote this comment...
===========================================================
"Good job guys, I'm glad you took the initiative to protest at your school, I'm organizeing a demo at our school also. You guys are spectacular, thanks for the motivation and tips."
===========================================================
The comment bot decided that this comment met the requirements based on the content in the comment and will now generate and post a reply in accord with its final objective.
The comment bot could now reply to the comment...
===========================================================
"I'm all for a peaceful protest, but in the last 2 weeks I heard 2 people died and tons of people arrested at demonstrations. Also, I think the book prices are fair because the books are such good quality."
===========================================================
So this robot has effectively started in a positive manner in general "agreement". People dying and being arrested is added to:
-persuade other readers not to be involved in this activity;
-to change the overall topic of discussion;
-creating and instilling emotional responses or doubt;
Finally the bot justified the pricing of books, attempting to motivate/suggest to the reader to adopt/form this type of passive persona/opinion.
===========================================================
The end effect is the comment bot has broadcast the complete opposite of the video/post topic is trying to address to the viewer.
The topic of: "University Students Protest High Book Fees" based on the comment bots reply is now broadcasting "Don't protest, you may die or be arrested, book fees are NOT too high"
The video topic is now totally undermined by the comment bot and many public viewers will see this opinion and be influenced to not participate in the protest. The public viewer will then lose interest in an actual topic which should concern them and move along to the next distraction completely oblivious to the fact they have just read a computer generated comment built to influence them in this very specific way.
========================================================
In conclusion:
This example is shown to give a very specific example of how artificial comments in a false reality can alter our decision making in reality.
If you look at "controversial" videos for example Miley Cyrus doing something sexual... you can nearly always find comments justifing her behaviour as "...shes just living her life..." or "...she works hard, she should be able to enjoy herself" Alternatively, if you look at religious videos of people converting to different faiths or discovering God you will notice more complex comments designed to confuse the reader, to belittle the video author or general ignorance and rude language in a slanderous manner towards an individual or the entire group itself. Next time you look at the comments, you will start to see this pattern emerge. It is actually not difficult to achieve or build a comment bot with software publicly available, that requires basically no computer programming experience, it has been available for at least a decade. (EZ Macros Builder)
Although this subject was written in 2017, you can find military based, private and government projects from 2009 (and earlier) which designed 10 or more "types" of human-like comment bot personalities built to target and influence specific online activity.
Example of the "types" of personalities built.
1. A "happy" comment bot
2. A "paranoid" comment bot
3. A "optomistic" comment bot
4. A "passive" comment bot
5. A "pro-USA" comment bot
6. A "anti-USA" comment bot
7. A "sycophant" comment bot
8. A "highly religious" comment bot
9. A "moderately religious" comment bot
10. A "radical religious" comment bot
Each of the above are only examples, the actual "personalities" of the created bots are much more dynamic, meaning, they would be built to be "flexible" in certain cases. They would also be smart enough to continue commenting, replying and communicating on other social networks (adding new posts, posting photos to timelines, adding friends, etc.). The bot could transition to emails if required, as if they were actual people. As of this writing, artificial intelligence can "listen" to your voice and respond to your questions with the voice of a real human in many languages and accents. You may actually be speaking to "fake" tech support more often than you think... no wonder they are so inconsiderate ;)
Solving the issues:
If we are able to remove distractions blocking our vision, look up, notice our situation and surroundings more clearly, we can think of many obvious topics we should actually be discussing which could benefit our life, our families, our communities and humanity in general, talking about the latest "cute cat video" should raise a flag that we are not cognisant of our own reality and we are actually living out someone elses ideas.
References:
AI Bots Military Project (search)
IBM Watson TTS (Text To Speech)
========================================================
========================================================
Other questions to consider:
Where could the countless hours "playing" on devices been more effectively used?
Are our decision making abilities being corruputed by viewing these types of comments?
If someone was in agreement that "book fees are too high" before reading comments and afterwards "decided" that they are actually fair and not high, could we consider that person was "shocked by fear" to revoke their first initial rational decision or what happened to that initial thought?
Can people critically think for themselves?
How much of a persons personality is built by ones own reason and thoughts and how much of the personality is built by information they are provided and taught?When is the last time I thought of something myself? When is the last time I did something creative without any outside help?
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