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If you think it's bad now, wait until "activists" have easy access to AI that most people can't distinguish from real humans. It's simple: Just pick a target o

If you think it's bad now, wait until "activists" have easy access to AI that most people can't distinguish from real humans. It's simple: Just pick a target of your ire, be it someone with ideological, political, lifestyle differences, or just someone you don't like, point your AI bot to it, and watch it harass your victim and anyone associated with them, until they lose their job, reputation, friends, family, etc. Bots never get bored, never forget to keep the pressure going. They continue, relentless, until their target is destroyed, even if you've forgotten and moved on. It'll start out as character-assassination-for-hire, but eventually the source will leak, and then all hell will break loose. It's a bully's paradise.

sandov 8y ago
That already happens, but instead of bots, it's dumb people with a political agenda doing the harassing, and they even do it with their own resources, you don't have to pay for bot servers.
- ativzzz 8y ago
  Yes, we tend to underestimate just how much energy, time, and money people are willing to contribute to harassing someone whose ideas they disagree with. Many times I find myself wanting to debate something online but the consequences of accidentally stepping on someone's toes who is willing to dedicate their life to destroying mine makes it just not worth the risk.
- hu3 8y ago
  So like Amazon Mechanical Turk but free?
vectorEQ 8y ago
then it seems finally time for humanity to buck-up and grow a thick skin :D people let others get to them. they let them... people get offended and demotivated by anything, while it's in their own hands to keep their spirits up.
jancsika 8y ago
> If you think it's bad now, wait until "activists" have easy access to AI that most people can't distinguish from real humans. I'd bet you could experience this right now if you start researching and posting on topics like "Free Tibet" and the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine. Edit: possibly with a paid human instead of an AI, but with a nation-state budget it's equivalent.
- asdff 8y ago
  The only reason why the Internet Research Agency and similar propaganda machines are staffed with people and not a well designed AI is that people are far cheaper and more flexible in what they can do. Training and retraining an AI takes time and a large dataset which takes time to build, and time is money.

sandov 8y ago

That already happens, but instead of bots, it's dumb people with a political agenda doing the harassing, and they even do it with their own resources, you don't have to pay for bot servers.

ativzzz 8y ago
Yes, we tend to underestimate just how much energy, time, and money people are willing to contribute to harassing someone whose ideas they disagree with. Many times I find myself wanting to debate something online but the consequences of accidentally stepping on someone's toes who is willing to dedicate their life to destroying mine makes it just not worth the risk.
hu3 8y ago
So like Amazon Mechanical Turk but free?

vectorEQ 8y ago

then it seems finally time for humanity to buck-up and grow a thick skin :D people let others get to them. they let them... people get offended and demotivated by anything, while it's in their own hands to keep their spirits up.

jancsika 8y ago

> If you think it's bad now, wait until "activists" have easy access to AI that most people can't distinguish from real humans. I'd bet you could experience this right now if you start researching and posting on topics like "Free Tibet" and the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine. Edit: possibly with a paid human instead of an AI, but with a nation-state budget it's equivalent.

asdff 8y ago
The only reason why the Internet Research Agency and similar propaganda machines are staffed with people and not a well designed AI is that people are far cheaper and more flexible in what they can do. Training and retraining an AI takes time and a large dataset which takes time to build, and time is money.