Since Eliza we've known that people love interacting with bots, especially if they fake innocence or cause outrage. Us old folks saw it on IRC, crude markov cha

Since Eliza we've known that people love interacting with bots, especially if they fake innocence or cause outrage. Us old folks saw it on IRC, crude markov chains puking out bits of the Bible and porn getting large amounts of "engagement" year after year. Meta knows this and wants to make money off of it. Connecting people around "engagement" failed and caused a lot of murder and that wasn't good for PR and relations to politicians. Keeping people around ads with bots though? Probably seems both safe and lucrative. Come for the mom selling used sports gear, stay for the late night chats with a machine that's a better listener than your over worked partner.