• TJA!
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1921 year ago

    Oh, I would have thought Reddit themselves would offer such a service

      • Hubi
        link
        fedilink
        English
        191 year ago

        Reddit is past the point of no return. He might as well speed it up a little.

      • paraphrand
        link
        fedilink
        English
        91 year ago

        Like a built in brand dashboard where brands can monitor keywords for their brand and their competitors? And then deploy their sanctioned set of accounts to reply and make strategic product recommendations?

        Sounds like something that must already exist. But it would have been killed or hampered by API changes… so now Spez has a chance to bring it in-house.

        They will just call it brand image management. And claim that there are so many negative users online that this is the only way to fight misinformation about their brand.

        Or something. It’s all so tiring.

      • @FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        81 year ago

        Probably.

        So, we complain to a regulatory body, they investigate, they tell a company to do better or, waaaay down the road, attempt to levy a fine. Which most companies happily pay, since the profits from he shady business practices tend to far outweigh the fines.

        Legal or illegal really only means something when dealing with an actual person. Can’t put a corporation in jail, sadly.

  • IninewCrow
    link
    fedilink
    English
    741 year ago

    Doesn’t mean that the fediverse is immune.

    News stories and narratives are still fought over by actors on all sides and sometimes by entities that might be bots. And there are a lot of auto-generating content bots that post stuff or repost old content from other sites like Reddit.

    • AggressivelyPassive
      link
      fedilink
      English
      241 year ago

      Especially since being immune to censorship is kind of the point of the fediverse.

      If you’re even a tiny bit smart about it, you can start hundreds of sock puppet instances and flood other instances with bullshit.

      • IndescribablySad@threads.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        32
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        I try to avoid talking about how indefensibly terrible Lemmy’s anti-spam and anti-brigading measures are for fear of someone doing something with the information. I imagine the only thing keeping subtle disinfo and spam from completely overtaking Lemmy is how small its reach would be. Doing the same thing to Reddit is a hundred times more effective, and systemically accepted. Reddit’s admins like engagement.

        • Optional
          link
          fedilink
          English
          181 year ago

          Put in those tickets. It’s a community effort y’know.

        • IninewCrow
          link
          fedilink
          English
          161 year ago

          It’s an arms race and Lemmy is only a small player right now so no one really pays attention to our little corner. But as soon as we get past a certain threshold, we’ll be dealing with the same problems as well.

        • MysticKetchup
          link
          fedilink
          English
          91 year ago

          I feel the same about a lot of Fediverse apps right now. They’re kinda just coasting on the fact that they’re not big enough for most spammers to care about. But they need to put in solid defenses and moderation tools before that happens

            • ✺roguetrick✺
              link
              fedilink
              English
              41 year ago

              Meta will likely actually moderate against spambots because they want you to fucking pay them for that service. The problem is, they aren’t too interested in moderating hate speech.

              • nickwitha_k (he/him)
                link
                fedilink
                English
                1
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                So, you’re suggesting that it is better that they are profiting from helping state actors and hate groups?

                Edit: No, they are not suggesting that. I misunderstood their meaning.

                • ✺roguetrick✺
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  3
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  I don’t think I made a value statement whatsoever. I think calling it a problem and hate speech would’ve been enough of a clue as to how I felt about it, however.

                  It’s actually why I support most instances defederating from them

  • kingthrillgore
    link
    fedilink
    English
    701 year ago

    Generative AI has really become a poison. It’ll be worse once the generative AI is trained on its own output.

  • @ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
    link
    fedilink
    English
    511 year ago

    I called this shit out like a year ago. It’s the end of any viable online searching having much truth to it. All we’ll have left is youtube videos from project farm to trust.

    • @Debs@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      33
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It kinda seems like the end of the Google era. What will we search Google for when the results are all crap? This is the death gasps of the internet I/we grew up with.

      • @Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        301 year ago

        Remember when you could type a vague plot of a film you’d heard about into Google and it’d be the first result?

        Nah doesn’t work anymore

        Saw a trailer for a french film so I searched “french film 2024 boys live in woods seven years”

        Google - 2024 BEST FRENCH FILMS/TOP TEN FRENCH FILMS YOU MUST SEE THIS YEAR/ALL TIME BEST FRENCH MOVIES

        Absolute fucking gash

        I’ve not been too impressed with Kagi search, but at least the top result there was “Frères 2024”

        • @EatATaco@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          0
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Remember when you could type a vague plot of a film you’d heard about into Google and it’d be the first result?

          I honestly don’t remember this at all. I remember priding myself on my “google-fu” and how to search it to get what i, or other people, needed. Which usually required understanding the precise language that you would need to use, not something vague. But over the years it’s gotten harder and harder, and now I get frustrated with how hard it has become to find something useful. I’ve had to go back to finding places I trust for information and looking through them.

          Although, ironically, I can do what you’re talking about with ai now.

      • @rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        01 year ago

        I’m feeling myself old and I’m 28.

        Cause in my early childhood in 2003-2007 we would resort to search engines only when we couldn’t find something by better (but more manual and social) means.

        Because - mwahahaha - most of the results were machine-generated crap.

        So I actually feel very uplift due to people promising the Web to get back to norm in this sense.

    • @BurningnnTree@lemmy.one
      link
      fedilink
      English
      201 year ago

      I ran into this issue while researching standing desks recently. There are very few places on the internet where you can find verifiably human-written comparisons between standing desk brands. Comments on Reddit all seem to be written by bots or people affiliated with the brands. Luckily I managed to find a YouTube reviewer who did some real comparisons.

  • @istanbullu@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    341 year ago

    You don’t get to blame AI for this. Reddit was already overrun by corporate and US gov trolls long before AI.

    • @TheFriar@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      20
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      “New poison has been added to arsenic. Should you stop drinking it? Subscribe to find out.”

    • @Rinox@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      English
      121 year ago

      The problem is the magnitude, but yeah, even before 2020 Google was becoming shit and being overrun by shitty blogspam trying to sell you stuff with articles clearly written by machines. The only difference is that it was easier to spot and harder to do. But they did it anyway

      • @rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        11 year ago

        These things became shit around 2009. Or immediately after becoming sufficiently popular to press out LiveJournal and other such (the original Web 2.0, or maybe Web 1.9 one should call them) platforms.

        What does this have to do with search engines - well, when they existed alongside web directories and other alternative, more social and manual ways of finding information, you’d just go to that if search engines would become too direct in promotion and hiding what they don’t want you to see. You’d be able to compare one to another and feel that Google works bad in this case. You wouldn’t be influenced in the end result.

        Now when what Google gives you became the criterion for what you’re supposed to associate with such a request, and same for social media, then it was decided.

    • Jojo, Lady of the West
      link
      fedilink
      English
      11 year ago

      You don’t get to blame AI for this. Reddit was already overrun by corporate and US gov trolls long before AI.

      Ftfy

  • @Mastengwe@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    341 year ago

    AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’

    FTFY

    • @Aabbcc@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      81 year ago

      Ai is a tool. It can be used for good and it can be used for poison. Just because you see it being used for poison more often doesn’t mean you should be against ai. Maybe lay the blame on the people using it for poison

  • @nytrixus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    291 year ago

    Correction - AI is poisoning everything when it is not regulated and moderated.

    Reddit has been poisoning itself for a while, what’s the difference? Just AI borrowing from the shithead behavior?

  • @PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    271 year ago

    The creator of the company, Alexander Belogubov, has also posted screenshots of other bot-controlled accounts responding all over Reddit. Begolubov has another startup called “Stealth Marketing” that also seeks to manipulate the platform by promising to “turn Reddit into a steady stream of customers for your startup.” Belogubov did not respond to requests for comment.

    What an absolute piece of shit. Just a general trash person to even think of this concept.

    • andrew_bidlaw
      link
      fedilink
      English
      31 year ago

      His surname translates from russian as ‘white lips’. No wonder he is a ghoul.

  • @laverabe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    201 year ago

    I just consider any comment after Jun 2023 to be compromised. Anyone who stayed after that date either doesn’t have a clue, or is sponsored content.

  • @vegaquake@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    171 year ago

    yeah, the internet is doomed to be unusable if AI just keeps getting more insidious like this

    yet more companies tie themselves to online platforns, websites, and other models of operation depending on being always connected.

    maybe the world needs a reboot, just get rid of it all and start from scratch

    • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      101 year ago

      maybe the world needs a reboot, just get rid of it all and start from scratch

      That would destroy all the old good vintage stuff and leave us with machines that immediately fill the vacant space with pure trash.

  • @sirspate@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    11
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    If the rumor is true that a reddit/google training deal is what led to reddit getting boosted in search results, this would be a direct result of reddit’s own actions.

  • @catch22@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    101 year ago

    This is a direct consequence of Google targeting Reddit posts in its search results. Hopefully forum groups like Lemmy don’t go get buried under a mountain of garbage as well. As long as advertisers are able to destroy public forums and communities with ads, with ad based revenue sites like Google directing who to target. We will always be creating something great while constantly trying to keep advertisers from turning it into a pile of crap.

    • @NeptuneOrbit@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      51 year ago

      The history of TV, in reverse. And then forward again.

      At first, it was an impossibly expensive medium rules by a cartel of agencies and advertisers. Eventually, HBO comes along and shows you don’t have to just make a bunch of lowest common denominator drivel.

      Netflix eventually shows that the internet can be a way cheaper model than cable. Finally, money shows up in the streaming model, remaking advertiser friendly cable in the internet age. All in about 2.5 decades.

  • @Boomkop3@reddthat.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    81 year ago

    Well, that was the last bit of usefulness I used to get out of google. I’ve been on yahoo for a while now