Malicious Bots on Social Media: The Rise of AI-Driven Manipulation

The video examines malicious bots on social media, citing a report by Imperva stating that 37% of all internet traffic is generated by harmful bots. These bots, controlled by operators, mimic human behavior using fake accounts ("sock puppets") with realistic profiles. Pre-AI bots relied on predefined responses and struggled with sarcasm detection or generating original content, making them easier to identify. Modern bots leverage large language models (LLMs) and image/video generation to create convincing posts, comments, and interactions. A demonstration using a local platform called "Scrollhole" showed how bots can generate posts about a fictional alien invasion, craft contextually relevant comments, and engage in gaslighting to manipulate perceptions. Social media platforms attempt to detect bots by monitoring IP addresses, posting patterns, and repetitiveness, but as bots become more human-like, distinguishing them from real users grows harder. The video references the "dead internet theory," where bots dominate online interactions, complicating detection.