Ask HN: What is the purpose of all these AI spam comments?

20•GaryBluto•1h ago

I have showdead enabled and recently noticed a massive influx of dead comments from users with names like "Jeff_Davis" and "Richard_Smith" that are just short, AI generated summaries of the link itself.

They don't appear to be karma whoring as (most of the time) they don't even seem to be expressing a positive opinion of the link. Just short, useless summaries that are often just a rephrasing of the information given in the post title.

What do you think the purpose of this is?

Comments

toomuchtodo•1h ago

A belief system that there is value in this form of forum participation.

ThrowawayR2•54m ago

My guess: bulk creation of fake accounts on social media for criminal purposes or spam is a thing, e.g. https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/cybe...

nrhrjrjrjtntbt•49m ago

I assume they are testing a bot.

rightbyte•41m ago

The classical reason is to try to hide when the bots shill by engaging some other random things too.

mtmail•30m ago

I'm just glad those comments are still easy to spot.

fuzzfactor•29m ago

If you were artificial, wouldn't you be trying to normalize your participation about now?

I imagine they would feel a lot better when they aren't the odd man out, and even more so to make up the vast majority.

As things continue to escalate.

notatoad•14m ago

if you are selling user accounts to a spammer, they want to buy accounts that have been "aged" - that is, they have some comment history and weren't created on the same day they start spamming, so they're a bit less obvious.

but if that's what they're doing here, they aren't very good at it.

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Ask HN: What is the purpose of all these AI spam comments?

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Ask HN: What is the purpose of all these AI spam comments?

Comments