Is it possible that some Reddit posters are secret bots who debate in order to develop AI’s discussion skills? /u/Sense_Difficult No such thing as stupid questions

I’m a pretty prolific poster online and have been for decades. I will type out replies and tend not to use a cell phone. Lately, I’d say over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a huge shift in what I would call stupidly argumentative replies to my posts and also other people’s posts.

At first it came across as just deliberately contrarian. Then I was thinking it was coming across as teenagers who got caught up in “comments sections” and wanting to argue with everyone over nonsense. Except it tends to come in droves. Someone will make an innocuous comment about liking a Movie or a person and suddenly one person shows up and strenuously disagrees, demanding that you prove your case.

Then the downvoting starts. And it just piles on. Suddenly it’s a complete debate with repeated requests to “prove your point” etc etc etc. I used to make the point, but, now I’ll delete the comment after a few minutes because it’s dawned on me that this is not a real person. It’s basically AI training itself.

I’ve also noticed that when I make a point online and then search google for the same question or statement, the AI preview will basically have a list of the arguments I’ve seen made in Reddit threads. It’s kind of interesting to also watch it change.

Has anyone else noticed this ? I’m not a tech person, does anyone know more about what goes on with bots behind the scenes?

I’m a pretty prolific poster online and have been for decades. I will type out replies and tend not to use a cell phone. Lately, I’d say over the last year or so, I’ve noticed a huge shift in what I would call stupidly argumentative replies to my posts and also other people’s posts.

At first it came across as just deliberately contrarian. Then I was thinking it was coming across as teenagers who got caught up in “comments sections” and wanting to argue with everyone over nonsense. Except it tends to come in droves. Someone will make an innocuous comment about liking a Movie or a person and suddenly one person shows up and strenuously disagrees, demanding that you prove your case.

Then the downvoting starts. And it just piles on. Suddenly it’s a complete debate with repeated requests to “prove your point” etc etc etc. I used to make the point, but, now I’ll delete the comment after a few minutes because it’s dawned on me that this is not a real person. It’s basically AI training itself.

I’ve also noticed that when I make a point online and then search google for the same question or statement, the AI preview will basically have a list of the arguments I’ve seen made in Reddit threads. It’s kind of interesting to also watch it change.

Has anyone else noticed this ? I’m not a tech person, does anyone know more about what goes on with bots behind the scenes?