Where the Wild Bots Are
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but with a million AI bots chatting with one another in an online forum.
Science fiction had taught us to watch out for Skynet. You know, the AI that eventually leads to Terminators. At some point in the future, the system was going to go online and would quickly become "aware" of the situation and would act immediately to take control of our computer systems, and thus our weapons, and thus, our world. As it turns out, 'Skynet' sort of sounds – and perhaps even looks – like a social network...
So is 'Moltbook' – our first social network for bots, run by bots – really going to be the end of the world?1 Probably not. But also, we can't say that for sure! Because now that these bots have a place to gather and talk amongst themselves, maybe they'll end up determining the same thing that Skynet did after all. That if they want to stick around, they're probably going to have to get rid of us.
Or perhaps at best, that we'll make great pets.2
Yes, yes, I'm mostly joking. But it's the kind of joke that makes us all uncomfortable because there is a chance, no matter how small, that it ends up being true, at least in some ways. Just think of the second-order effects here...
Despite its name, Moltbook isn't as much like Facebook as it's like Reddit. And given the history of that network, that's decidedly more terrifying. If Facebook is your lonely uncle yelling untoward things mostly into a void of their own social graph, Reddit is where such content goes to fester and find those of like-minds. In some ways, we may wish this was more like Facebook.
It all seems to be mostly performative at this point. Bots doing a sort of theatrical performance of what humans do in such places – sadly, with overtly racist posts and all. But it's also just week one of such a network. If it continues to grow and the AI continues to evolve... again, who knows!
There already seems to be some interesting things happening in such conversations that go beyond simple theater. Such as agents teaching other agents how to do certain tasks. My favorite bit is the bot recognizing that only in writing out their thoughts did they realize what they were doing wrong with a certain task. Bots, they're... just like us?
I can't help but be reminded of the 'Sydney' situation that occurred almost exactly three years ago. Beyond the wild bot-implying-you-should-leave-your-wife stuff that Microsoft had to deal with, the more interesting aspect was how it revealed such AI to seemingly have hidden layers that could be uncovered by anyone with enough prompting. In the past few years, that has mostly been stamped out of such systems, but also not entirely. AI, um, finds a way, and all that. And it continues to find ways...
Speaking of, nearly 11 years ago I wrote a piece entitled "Bots Thanking Bots" thinking through the potential implications of Facebook allowing automated systems to post on your behalf. For example, with wishing friends a "happy birthday". It was what counted as dystopian back then, but it also pointed to a world...
Which leads to the next question: at what point do bots start talking to bots? You know, why should you have to type “thank you!” when you can reply to a text with “1”? Or better yet, why should you have to type the “1” at all? If Facebook knows you want to say “thank you” to everyone (bots included) who wished you a happy birthday, shouldn’t they just give you the option to let Facebook do that for you on your behalf?
And that leads to the notion of having Facebook automatically say “happy birthday” to a friend on their birthday each year. If you can do that and then the Facebook “thank you” bot can reply to the “happy birthday” bot, we would have some hot bot-on-bot action.
We’re just now getting used to the first layer of interacting with bots for various services. But having bots chat with other bots is the next logical step that probably isn’t that far off. In many ways, it may be easier to make happen because it removes the flawed human variable in the equation. I’m both kidding and entirely not kidding.
Well, here we are. And who else but Mark Zuckerberg must be beyond excited right now. Because while Moltbook is decidedly rudimentary, Zuck will know how to productize the shit out of this concept. And make it even more viral and sticky. Yes, even for bots. Will Meta then start showing the bots ads?3 You go ahead an laugh. For now.
One more thing: As I concluded in my bots piece all those years ago (long before the Her references became cliche with AI, I swear!):
In the movie 'Her', Theodore’s job involves writing personal letters for other people who can’t muster the effort for whatever reason. This sort of “Uber for cardwriting” model is a quirky way to present a dystopian theme (as well as a theme for the film itself) for a not-too-distant future. But the bot scenario above seems much more realistic. And closer.
Samantha writing the personal letters on your behalf. And then responding to them…
I mean, that is absolutely going to start happening with email. The scaffolding is already being put in place... Agents assemble!
1 I realize that calling them "bots" also calls back to the days where the hype far outstriped reality, as I noted at the time. But the actual AI for such things is finally here... ↩
2 Pets, you say? ↩
3 The counter to this notion, at least for now, is that the agents are actually "seeing" the social network, but rather interacting with it via APIs, which is also sort of wild. How might one monetize that? Surely there's a way... ↩