There has recently been a wave of AI-generated accounts signing up pretending to be real people.
Server admins are trying to ban them as quickly as they are discovered, and some servers have temporarily closed sign-ups while they deal with it.
If you spot an account you think might be AI-generated, click ⋯ on one of the account's posts and select "report". Remember to give your reason for reporting, so that the admin knows what to look for.
Replying to @FediTips@social.growyourown.services
p.s. Mastodon admins may want to switch off invitations entirely as the AI signups seem to be exploiting the invitation system. The setting for user invitations is a bit hidden but you can find it with this guide:
https://fedi.tips/inviting-people-onto-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/#AdminInvites
fedi.tipsInviting people onto Mastodon and the Fediverse | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the FediverseAn unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the FediverseReplying to @FediTips@social.growyourown.services
p.p.s. Just to clarify, there are good bots and bad bots. Report the bad bots, but don't report the good bots!
❌ Bad bots are usually GenAI/LLMs and are disguised as people.
✅ Good bots *aren't* GenAI/LLMs. Good bots are labelled "automated" by the person who created them, so that people can see it is a good bot. Good bots do things like relay weather reports, play chess, post quotations from books etc.
Replying to @FediTips@social.growyourown.services
Ah, that might be a bit optimistic. Anyone can flag their bot as a bot - that's all the flag means, as far as I know. The flag does not signify anything about the quality, ethics or any other characteristic of the bot. If definitely doesn't indicate whether it is AI or not.
If an account is behaving badly, or seems to be AI generated, or both - report it.
I'm mainly posting because a lot of people think the "automated" label is some kind of detection system rather than a self-applied label.
The flag means that the creator of the account is explicitly saying it is an automated account. This in itself shows that the creator is not trying to fool anyone about how the account operates.
The creators of the problematic accounts are disguising GenAI/LLMs as humans, so they aren't going to use the flag because it would give the game away.