AI Bots on Forums
- Thread starter Jason76
- Start date
Dismal_Bliss
Reputable
I've never seen one, or at least never noticed one.
I think having an AI masquerading as a normal member would be terribly deceptive.
I think having an AI masquerading as a normal member would be terribly deceptive.
Uncrowned Guard
Resident
AI members would be a horrendous idea as even if it worked, the mistrust it would generate down the road would never be worth it. Now AI moderation tools and such would be a great asset, but I don't know of any forum using them yet.
An AI copilot would be the best option I my eyes right now. One that can point out bad posts to staff and one that can help users with posting. Tools like suggestions for replies and prompts for references, reply size, reposted content, etc.
An AI copilot would be the best option I my eyes right now. One that can point out bad posts to staff and one that can help users with posting. Tools like suggestions for replies and prompts for references, reply size, reposted content, etc.
I completely agree. AI masquerading as a posting member is a horrible idea but if used as a tool for moderation, predictive search, language translation etc it could provide huge benefits.
I've looked into AI bots, not as a substitute for member interaction but as a novel sort of resource that I could potentially offer. For example, with the AI bot builders now available, you can program a bot that's powered by GPT-4 but only uses source material you give it (e.g., your forum content or other unique resources). I've tinkered with customgpt.ai, but think bot sonic might be the best deal. Some, like bot sonic and siteGPT offer a free trial if you're interested in experimenting with bot building.
Dismal_Bliss
Reputable
So I finally encountered a forum with AI members, and yes it was deceptive at first, lol. I would submit a post and within seconds there was a 3 paragraph reply from a member and I am like "how the heck did they do that" lol 😀
I can't say that I have seen many AI bots on forums but I would imagine they do exist. I can only imagine how much of a pain it would be to deal with them once you get them on your forum.
Having strict spam prevention in space will more than likely help a lot.
Having strict spam prevention in space will more than likely help a lot.
It’s kind of weird seeing ai bots responding to forum topics and posts.
But, I guess it’s a trend that’s here to stay.
It's a trend that is very annoying. As soon as you post, within seconds they have a response and most of it is just nonsense, trying to sound human. A lot of bad information and reiterating some standard facts which just makes me roll my eyes. I avoid forums that have this type of tech because it's not going to make me want to interact at all.
I completely agree with you. It’s something that I hope disappears over time.
It goes against the heart and foundation of forums, especially since online communities were built for humans—to foster interaction, a sense of belonging, shared interests, goals, and the exchange of information—not for bots.
There are some add-ons for scripts that create "fake" users that use AI to respond.
It's a somewhat deceptive practice, don't you think?
No more so than admins that log in under multiple accounts to create what looks like activity on a site.
Not a practice I would support, but it's done regularly.
I was caught off guard the first time I encountered this. I quickly realized that it was a AI bot quickly responding to my posts lol. I'm not really a fan of it, I would never use AI bots on my forums since I prefer interactions between other humans. But hey it's not my forum, so if the admin wants to keep using them then so be it.
I think they’ll stop doing it soon.
Two forums that use it, just lost all of their organic traffic from Google. They’re no longer ranking at all.
Organic Search Traffic: 5 (-96%) – This means the site is getting almost no organic visitors, and traffic has dropped significantly.
SEMrush shows organic traffic as 1, it means the website is receiving only one visitor from Google search within the selected time period. This is a strong indicator that the site is:
• Not ranking for competitive keywords
• Possibly deindexed or penalized
• Lacking strong SEO signals (backlinks, content, or on-page optimization)
I’m pretty sure both of them are getting deindexed for violating google’s spam policies.
Spam Policies for Google Web Search | Google Search Central | Documentation | Google for Developers
The spam policies detail the behaviors and tactics that can lead to a page or an entire site being ranked lower or completely omitted from Google Search.
developers.google.com
Scaled content abuse
Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. This abusive practice is typically focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value to users, no matter how it's created.Examples of scaled content abuse include, but are not limited to:
- Using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users
- Scraping feeds, search results, or other content to generate many pages (including through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating, or other obfuscation techniques), where little value is provided to users
- Stitching or combining content from different web pages without adding value
- Creating multiple sites with the intent of hiding the scaled nature of the content
- Creating many pages where the content makes little or no sense to a reader but contains search keywords
Attachments
Affiliates
