However, bots like @oliviataters, @nice_tips_bot, and @twoheadlines draw attention because on close inspection, they are not convincingly human; their very "botness" is funny, surreal, or poetic. In online political activism too, research suggests that bots may be most effective at motivating engagement when they aren't trying to appear human. In one study in Bolivia, researchers found that potential volunteers responded negatively when clearly nonhuman Twitter bots took on a more human tone.What Can Bubonic Plague Tell Us About Bitcoin?
Thinkpiece BotFebruary 18, 2016
i could watch another movie but then it'd be over at 5 am and i will have basically given concrete form to the intangible desire.
olivia tatersJanuary 25, 2016
Who is responsible for the output and actions of bots, both ethically and legally? How does semi-autonomy create ethical constraints that limit the maker of a bot?
But this condemnation can be sorely misplaced. It's not always that the human behind the bot intends for things to go poorly. While we want to preserve human responsibility for design choices, we also need to keep in mind that some bots will be programmed precisely to do things independent from and even unanticipated by their creators.Consider the Random Darknet Shopper bot, which was programmed to spend $100 in bitcoin weekly to make random purchases on the online black market Agora. At some point the bot purchased drugs. The laptop running the program that powered the bot was consequently seized by Swiss police, along with the MDMA pills the bot purchased.Impolite perhaps, but I discovered a good way to get past automated 1-800 and to a human is to begin swearing at the robot
Tim WuFebruary 19, 2016
I'm going to delete my bot for now, because that's what they want.
BB ON BOARDFebruary 11, 2015
The bot can be thought of as more than an assistant: it can be a kind of civic prosthetic, a tool that augments our ability to sense other people and systems. Bots won't replace journalists, but they can help supercharge them by automating tasks that would otherwise have to take place manually. A bot can continue to report indefinitely on a topic, or expose connections or patterns that would take many hours for a human to uncover. Through these myriad affordances, bots can become powerful tools for citizens to use in demanding accountability of those in power.I got married in 1961. it only takes me 7mins to get to work.I have a high school diploma. I had less than 2 weeks off last year.
censusAmericansFebruary 18, 2016
Questions of design, ownership and trust are particularly relevant for journalism bots because journalism is a discipline of verification. Journalists strive to seek truth and accuracy in writing, and seek to avoid slander and libel. A bot will eventually get things wrong if it is fed inaccurate information, and the bot could commit libel. If you make a bot, are you prepared to deal with the fallout when your tool does something that you yourself would not choose to do? How do you stem the spread of misinformation published by a bot? Automation and "big" data certainly afford innovative reporting techniques, but they also highlight a need for revamped journalistic ethics.The Regulator: Bots, Politics and PolicyGiven the public and social role they increasingly play—and whatever responsibility their creators assume—the actions of bots, whether implicitly or explicitly, have political outcomes. The last several years have seen a rise in bots being used to spread political propaganda, stymie activism and bolster social media follower lists of public figures. Activists can use bots to mobilize people around social and political causes. People working for a variety of groups and causes use bots to inject automated discourse on platforms like Twitter and Reddit. Over the last few years both government employees and opposition activists in Mexico have used bots in attempts to sway public opinion. Where do we draw the line between propaganda, public relations and smart communication?Talk:Iraq War Wikipedia article edited anonymously from US Senate congress-editsJanuary 21, 2016
At the moment bot oversight tends to fall upon the shoulders of platforms, but even companies like Twitter and Facebook can't catch all bots and nor do they want to. Twitter's bot-friendly design and approach differs greatly from the tighter regulation of authenticity and automation on Facebook; the former allows for a thriving bot ecology but also makes a space for more nefarious uses of automation. Bots encoded with political intentions and those designed to attack other users threaten other rights, those enforceable by other entities. Automated abuse, coercion and deceit—along with the anonymity afforded by bot proxies—must be addressed while preserving the creativity and messiness so central to coding.Wholesale elimination of bots on social media would, after all, also get rid of bots doing important work in journalism and silence the variety of bots appreciated for their comedy and "botness." How to craft an administrable policy then becomes a critical question for platforms wanting to reap the opportunities that bots bring without falling victim to the threats they raise.One approach to designing policies around bots involves thinking about designing rules that would limit behaviors that we do not want people to practice. For instance, how do you create policies that dissuade people from engaging in unfair political attacks? Two main values, decisional privacy and democratic discourse, emerge here as helpful starting points to all kinds of regulators.Platforms, governments and citizens must step in and consider the purpose, and future, of bot technology before manipulative anonymity becomes a hallmark of the social bot.
This is not a complete solution to the challenge bots present. The approach becomes tricky when we think of the possibilities of bots as "speed-bumps": agents that can create socially beneficial behavioral change. Bots might be effective tools for guiding people toward healthier lifestyles or for spreading information about natural disasters. How can policies allow for civically "good" bots while stopping those that are repressive or manipulative?Healthy democratic discourse, meanwhile, is buttressed by an environment that fosters a diversity of voices. Bots can be seen as both speech acts and proxy actors. As acts, the First Amendment is biased toward preserving them. As "actors," it's vital to consider how bots are related to the rights of individuals, be it to amplify their voices or to potentially drown out or harm the speech of others.Embracing Semi-AutonomyExcitement about bots, from Silicon Valley to the academy, is palpable at the moment. This is partially because the creative, political, legal and ethical futures of this technology are so open. Semi autonomy, the dual human-computer nature of bots, provides fodder for all sorts of revolutionary production and reception. We must consider, however, the fact that this technology will continue to evolve and become more sophisticated. To what ends will this evolution lead?A 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred 10.56mi ENE of Christchurch, New Zealand. Details: Earthquake RobotFebruary 14, 2016