4 ms·

Why didn’t they just reject the PR and not allow the agent to join?

• arlcode 4mo ago
  They did, but decided to mess with them first. A sensible human operator would have given up or questioned their premises. The agent never could of course.
  • iamflimflam1 4mo ago
    Reading the article made me feel slightly uncomfortable. There is a slightly cruel streak that can emerge in online communities - let's see how much we can mess with this and cost it money. Without any thought there might be a human being that is impacted.
    • entrox 4mo ago
      And that is a good thing. What the human operator did was completely irresponsible and malicious, paying a small bill is hopefully educational and will correct their behavior going forward. Having agents like this interacting with human communities is a scourge that must be prevented. With every passing day my longing for a Butlerian Jihad grows firmer.
    • eqvinox 4mo ago
      Cruelty would imply a conscious, sentient subject, you can't be cruel to a machine. At best, you can be careless in your use of a tool, causing premature wear and deterioration. In this case, you could theoretically argue about being cruel to the human operator behind, but that's quite a bit of a stretch. They gave billing access to a poorly controlled machine.