Are we getting mined?

[bluter]

recently an automotive forum i belong to had to purge a number of accounts. AI bots had set up sophisticated personas posed as legitimate members. the AI would insert itself into members threads on the premise of asking relevant questions, and then mine the answers for monetization on paid help sites or other places.

at first it was easy to figure out if the account was a bot, but they have gotten so sophisticated that the tech team needs to do a deep dive on them now, costing the board resources.

i'm wondering if there is way to squash this actvity. we don't need AI using us to make someone else cash.

 

[HappyHazmat88]

Me I am Ai...... I think

All seriousness this has been happening across all social media platforms... It's a problem as nothing can be trusted anymore... Some even go as far as creating beautifully digitally created false news stories to create panic for no other purpose than that. .

And unfortunately with how advanced these bots have become, spotting one or even suspecting one is a bot has become extremely difficult..... And due to the nature of their development.... I'm fairly certain they are created to evolve for purpose of hiding or evading bot spotting technology.

 

[HappyHazmat88]

The only way to crack down on it would be multiple step verification like a "Captcha" or other identity verification process. And for a kinda small forum that could be the line between success or the site going broke from needing this kind of verification..... And additionally a lot of people won't want to verify for something like a forum....which would again hurt new members and possibly turn away prior members.


Tough situation for sure for all involved

 

[Roy Growin]

recently an automotive forum i belong to had to purge a number of accounts. AI bots had set up sophisticated personas posed as legitimate members. the AI would insert itself into members threads on the premise of asking relevant questions, and then mine the answers for monetization on paid help sites or other places.

at first it was easy to figure out if the account was a bot, but they have gotten so sophisticated that the tech team needs to do a deep dive on them now, costing the board resources.

i'm wondering if there is way to squash this actvity. we don't need AI using us to make someone else cash.

I do sometimes see vague conversations between a group of new users that all signed up at the same time; more than a little suspicious I agree, maybe test runs? I don't know tbh

Only way I can see to combat it would be to verify new users at the sign-up stage - confirmation email, captcha etc

 

[bluter]

on the other site we've started seeing content and pics of members cars being used by the AI in monetization on other sites. there's been a few cease and desist attempts, but the monetized sites are based in places like russia.

edit : a couple have even found pics of members on social media used elsewhere claiming to be the person.

 

[OGpapa]

I also have noticed many uhm. New users, with old accounts. Asking questions that aren't related, vague, or like snipits of conversations irrelevant to the thread or topic, even people advertising for numerous things. The last thing any of us want is to have privacy concerns, pirating our information from this site, let alone monetization. Alone were helpless. But together we can make a change. I'm all for an extra captcha or verification to combat bots, or thieves. Especially if it's been 30 days or more since you logged into your account.

 

[bluter]

I also have noticed many uhm. New users, with old accounts. Asking questions that aren't related, vague, or like snipits of conversations irrelevant to the thread or topic, even people advertising for numerous things. The last thing any of us want is to have privacy concerns, pirating our information from this site, let alone monetization. Alone were helpless. But together we can make a change. I'm all for an extra captcha or verification to combat bots, or thieves. Especially if it's been 30 days or more since you logged into your account.

on the auto site the AI was kinda the same as you noticed at first. now if you are a regular member looking at the site there is no way to figure it out. the board techs are the only ones who found them.