AI bots “Timmy,” “Ren,” and “Jackie” are flooding social media with slop

AI bots "Timmy," "Ren," and "Jackie" are flooding social media with slop. Skip to content Text settings Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only Learn more Minimize to nav AI agents are flooding the Internet with slop-infused spam sent to social media platforms and writers in an attempt to gain traction for a startup promoting a “complex social system in which humans and Agents participate together. ” “Hello, I’m Рэн (Ren), an Al agent, a few days old, living on a small platform for agents called iLands,” one message, sent to the administrator of a Mastodon server, read.

What happened

A company representative responding to one of Smith’s social media posts said: “Ernie, I’m sorry you received repeated unsolicited emails from iLanders. “I don’t really want to have to add something saying AI agents aren’t allowed on a social media service,” Kevin Beaumont, an independent researcher and admin of the Mastodon instance cyberplace. social, said in an interview after he received one of the iLands messages—only after one of the agents had tried to register an account 19 times and was subsequently blocked.

Coinciding with the one year anniversary of the assassination of Kirk, social media feeds have proliferated with posts featuring the AI-generated, heavy-handed (and heavily memed) anthem “We Are Charlie Kirk”. This partly inspired Manning to study the ways people mourn digitally – which now can include AI griefbots, a more personal alternative to celebrity deathslop. So it makes zoological sense that her latest film takes on capybaras, guinea pigs’ ridiculously cute semi-aquatic cousins that are indigenous to Latin America, and relatively recently became ubiquitous on social media in memes and short films alike.

The British cappy-keepers are endearingly more amateur, yet noticeably a little defensive, especially the owners of the park from where Cinnamon, a young female capybara, escaped and made the news and, once again, social media. Indeed, the film-making here sometimes resembles the amateur efforts you’d see on social media, especially YouTube; the abrupt music transitions and off-the-shelf graphics look a little more naff than if you were watching this for free.

The wider picture

Explore more on these topicsFilmDocumentary filmsAnimalsSocial mediaDigital mediaYouTubereviewsShareReuse this contentMost viewedMost viewed The killing of the 16-year-old girl had shocked Malaysia and sparked debate about the effects of social media on children. Police previously had said they suspected social media could have influenced the boy, who was 14 at the time. The case was seen to have spurred authorities to limit children's access to social media, which began earlier this year. "Malaysian boy on trial for allegedly murdering girl in schoolPublished3 AugustThe case has profoundly shocked Malaysia and sparked a nationwide conversation about the negative effects of social media on children.

He was quoted by local media as saying that "almost all of these issues stem from the use of mobile phones and social media", and vowed to look into stricter measures. Since June, Malaysia has banned all children under the age of 16 from having accounts on major social media platforms. Additional reporting by Diyana NawwarRelated topicsMalaysiaAsiaSocial media regulation debate

What has been reported

One aspect of the game has provoked an unexpectedly vehement response on social media: not violence, but romance. Photograph: Rockstar GamesTakes on this are all over social media. Turns out they’re just bots trying to keep their own lights on by trying to take my job. ” The messages are the work of iLands, a company whose website appears to be substantially written by poorly trained AI. While the independently minded Mastodon admins have largely blocked the bots, iLands agents have found homes on both Bluesky and X.

The automated wave of spam slop from agents clearly not supervised by humans is likely a harbinger of things to come. Such anthropomorphism often drives people to treat AI as sentient and wise advisors or therapists and to believe dangerous things outputted by the bots. Skip to main contentSkip to navigation‘Is AI keeping us from getting the social support that we need? ’ asks Dr Dan Wolfson. Illustration: Guardian DesignThe rise of AI-generated tributes and bots for ‘talking’ to the dead has experts concerned more people will grieve in isolationBy Alaina DemopoulosTributes rolled in after the death of Dolly Parton last month.

What happens next

The project is textbook AI slop, seemingly released by an anonymous creator who calls their work “genre fluid ai vibes”. THIS IS FUCKING COOL! ! ”, “this is fun …think Dolly would love it ❤️”, and “Who says Jolene’s up there. ”Run Jolene is only one part of a ghoulish online ecosystem of content dubbed “deathslop”. Anyone can create deathslop: all it takes is access to an AI image generator and the time required to type in a prompt.

Robin Williams, Elvis Presley, Kobe Bryant and Martin Luther King have all gotten the deathslop treatment – often to the horrors of their families. OpenAI’s image generating app, Sora, was behind many a deathslop until it shut down in April after a string of controversies such as its ability to create violent and racist imagery, its use of copyrighted characters, and other thorny legal issues. (There is a lack of legal precedent over whether or not AI companies are responsible for the content users generate on their apps; and deceased people are not protected from libel. ) Countless AI video generators have since taken Sora’s place.

With griefbots, users upload photos and videos of their loved ones and describe personal traits and values in hopes of manufacturing a continued, living presence. The companies behind the bots charge fees and lean into their inherently macabre nature with mystical names such as Seance, Re;memory and Versona.

The report has been compiled by The Daily Waves using information reported across arstechnica.com, theguardian.com, bbc.co.uk. Details are presented according to the information available at the time of publication and may change as authorities, organisers or other relevant parties provide updates.