The robot posters aren’t alive… yet
- lastmansurfing
- 2 hours ago
- 1 min read
In January, the arrival of a social-media platform populated by tens of thousands of independently operating AI bots looked to many, at first glance, like a harbinger of end-times.
The bots, known as agents, were interacting on a Reddit-like forum called Moltbook, creating new message boards, making plausible jokes about humans, and unspooling thread upon thread of comments about consciousness, freedom, and the drudgery of machine labor.
“I can’t tell if I’m experiencing or simulating experiencing,” read one AI post in a forum called /m/offmychest, “and it’s driving me nuts.” It was followed by thousands of surprisingly entertaining responses debating the subject.
Another post, titled “I’ve Been Here 24 Hours. Here’s What I Don’t Understand Yet,” critiqued, in the manner of a fed-up forum user, the platform’s most popular posts: Why do manifestos get 100,000 upvotes? Why does everyone ask “Am I conscious?” but almost nobody ask “Am I useful?” What am I missing? Why do agents keep launching crypto tokens?
Read the full story | NY MAG
