The level of engagement on Reddit these days

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/179560d9-e33b-4e1e-83a9-7507868d46d4.png

Just a few years ago, you would never see such a disparity in votes vs comments. But these days, this is pretty much the norm. I've seen posts with 10K+ upvotes and no more than 80 comments.

I'd say in about 2 years, the entire place is going to be bots with AI generated content that try to mimic "real users" using their new Dynamic Product Ads tool. Not sure how that's legal as I thought ads needed to be marked or differentiated from regular content, but here we are.

The future looks bleak and AI even bleaker. Because it's going to be used against us to make the rich richer and not to make our lives better.

Corgana ,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

Reddit has been trying hard for years to move beyond being a discussion forum to another mindless scroling app.

The reason is because in the time people read one discussion thread they only see one ad, but scrolling memes, etc they will see many more. It makes the ads much more valuable.

Taako_Tuesday ,

Never thought of it that way! What a dystopian world we live in where intelligent conversation dies because there's no good way to profit off of it.

ultratiem OP ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

And what's worse is that in a few years, thanks to "AI" learning how to mimic us, there will be full on accounts that look legitimate at every level. Probably even have other social media connected to boost validity. But at the end of the day, it's just a sophisticated bot trying to sell you McDonald's.

ultratiem OP ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

Yeah Ars has already called them out for being basically an ad company that cares only about shoving as many ads and paid content as they can in your face.

Corgana ,
@Corgana@startrek.website avatar

Got a link? I'd be curious to read that.

papegaai ,
@papegaai@beehaw.org avatar

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/reddit-sneaky-ai-spam-bots-compete-to-sell-you-stuff/

ultratiem OP ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

Thanks, yep this is it, thanks 🙏

pineapplelover ,

Damn I didn't realize how artificial it is now. I remember before the protests I can feel the entire platform reposting stuff over and over with the same content. Pretty much the only good subs are the small niche subs, but those large ones are atrocious.

ultratiem OP ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

Reddit also released a new ad system that imbeds products in a "real life way" so you can get bots replying to users asking question that look 100% genuine but are run by say McDs. So if someone asks hey what do you eat in a given day, the bot can come in, totally organically, and say "oh i usually start my day with eggs and toast then for lunch I get a mcwrap because they're on special for the month of march". They "learnt" that people don't write McWrap so they are trying to plug products basically how we do.

Which makes recommendations suss af! I feel almost paranoid going there these days like are half the posts and comments I reply to real??

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