Example of a llm astroturfing tool
Do you want to know why reading Reddit feels so infuriating to read recently? So many posts always use this same lifeless tone, with bullet pointed lists and lack any sort of authenticity. They are so generic and I feel like I’m slowly mentally degenerating by just reading it day after day.
This is the result of Google, and other companies using Reddit comments as input into their AI systems.
TLDR:
ChatGPT uses Google to search for answers. Reddit threads often appear as top search results from Google. Reddit threads and posts are being created by AI to mention their products / services. The hope is to get their product more mentions by other AIs via this method.
AI finds Reddit threads
Basically:
- These marketing companies created an AI to find which Reddit threads are going viral and/or predict which ones will
- Then they use an LLM to give a long human-like reply
- Then near the end mention all the services / products they should use
- Linking to them isn’t even needed because the goal is to get them mentioned by ChatGPT and other AIs
The ironic part of this scheme is that these comments are not even meant to be read by humans, they are information dense and optimized to be read by AI. Then in the next AI training or whatever this product mention will be picked up. It’s simply an overcomplicated way of automating advertising.
It’s like a snake eating it’s own tail
AIs using Reddit to mention their product and then it gets sucked into the next training data set.
AI generates fake questions in threads
I’ve even seen some AIs generating fake generic questions and then using an other account to answer it.
For those who don’t want to click the link:
r/canadasmallbusiness
Anyone else struggling to keep their small business afloat lately?
Running a small business in Canada feels tougher than ever right now. Rising costs, low reach, and constantly changing platforms make it hard just to stay visible. ….
Generic problem, and a generic explanation. Seriously does anyone actually talk like this? How can anyone give advice to such a open-ended question? But of course this is the perfect question for an AI to solve, they love this generic topic, it’s just full of juicy keywords.
Then AI answers itself
The original AI generated response was removed. But it basically gave a long winded answer about having the same feeling, and then near the end mentioned various internet services it can use. And helpfully layed out which ones are good for what. Everything said in a way for the next LLM to slurp up.
This was bound to happen
Reddit astroturfing isn’t new but now the end result is people will not see the source of the answer on sites like Reddit, they’ll only get an answer from their AI. AI is very good at convincing people and most won’t bother to check the source for the claims. For example, Doctors are using LLMs to ask for which medicine to prescribe. Check this comment out:
I worked at a company that sold to doctors and the marketing team was spending most of their effort on this kind of thing. They said that nowadays when doctors want to know “what should I buy to solve X?” or “which is better A or B?” they ask ChatGPT and take its answer as factual. They said that they were very successful in generating blog articles for OpenAI to train on so that our product would be the preferred answer.
People will assume because the AI crunched the numbers and thought really hard, its answer must be the most optimal, but in actuality, it’s just regurgitating what was said on Reddit and/or blog posts.
I want to talk to real people
Reading Reddit is getting harder by the week. The remedy seems to be that the AI systems will implement a sort of “adblocking” system to stop this from happening. Only then will they stop using this method.