Latest news with #bots
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Nancy Mace ran bot army, had staff run fake accounts to boost profile, report claims: ‘It's what she does for fun'
South Carolina's most outspoken member of Congress is reportedly putting her techie background to good use. Mace, a third-term House member with reported ambitions to run for governor, directs staffers to run countless bot accounts and fake social media profiles on her behalf — all with the aim of boosting Mace's content and messaging, according to a new report from Wired Wednesday that cited several unnamed former staffers and a consultant who publicly ended his contract with the congresswoman. The report quoted a deposition from Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina-based campaign consultant who previously worked closely with Mace's campaigns. The deposition, first reported a week earlier by a local conservative news blog, FITS News, was taken by attorneys for Mace's ex-fiancee — whom she accused of sexual assault, along with three other men, in a jarring moment during a congressional hearing. Wired's reporting echoed the claim made by Donehue, who told a court: 'She programs her own bots. She sets up Twitter burner accounts. This is the kind of a thing she does. She sits all night on the couch and programs bots, because she's very, very computer savvy. She controls her own voter database, she programs a lot of her own website, she programs Facebook bots and Instagram bots and Twitter bots. It's what she does for fun.' According to a staffer, Mace would allegedly order her underlings to identify criticism of her on social media; a slew of fake accounts would then pile on the offending account. 'We were congressional staff, and there were actual things we could be doing to help the constituents,' one said. The Independent has reached out to the congresswoman's office for comment. 'The only relationship the congresswoman cares about is her one with South Carolina,' said Sydney Long, according to the outlet. But that wasn't the case earlier this month when Mace showed a blurry image of what she said was her own naked body — an image she said was taken without her consent — during a congressional hearing as she called for stronger penalties for sexual offenders who film people without their knowledge in private spaces. Instead, Mace dragged four men including her ex-fiancee by name into the hearing and labeled them 'predators.' Patrick Bryant, her ex-fiancee, and the three other men have all maintained their innocence in regard to her accusations. Meanwhile, the deposition that Bryant forced Donehue to give revealed that Mace spent so much of her time on her 'relationships,' despite her staffer's denial, that it was the defining factor leading to Donehue abandoning her as a client and publicly disowning her. According to FITS News, Donehue said under oath that the congresswoman wanted him constantly 'to intervene in her relationship problems with Patrick Bryant' and later 'asked me to blackmail Patrick Bryant'. He went on to call her a 'chronic liar who constantly plays the victim card for her own benefit.' 'Nancy talks about her sex life in a way that I've never heard a client or a woman talk,' Donehue added. 'This goes beyond Patrick. This is with multiple partners. She loves talking about sex,' he claimed. According to Donehue, 'every conversation would devolve into what's going on in her sex life…something that she talked about all the time and I always felt uncomfortable with.' The congresswoman has been one of the most polarizing figures on the Hill since she arrived. A onetime 'NeverTrumper', she like others completed an evolution into a pro-Trump believer that saved her from successive primary challenges backed by both Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker. She was one of a small group of GOP rebels who ousted McCarthy as speaker of the House in 2023. She's no stranger to accusations of her own, with staffers calling her abusive and 'toxic'. Between 2023-2024, her office underwent more staff turnover than any other — with every single staff member quitting and being replaced over the course of one year.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Driving instructors face ban on booking tests to stop bots taking slots
Driving instructors could be banned from reserving tests to stop bots from mass-booking new slots. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is also considering preventing bookings from being swapped between candidates. Learners currently face a huge backlog to take a driving test, with 603,000 future tests booked as of the end of April – up from 521,000 a year ago. The demand for tests has prompted an influx of bots that use complex systems to block-book new slots so they can be resold on the black market for inflated prices. Nearly a third of learners, newly qualified drivers and their parents or guardians responded to a call for evidence by the DVSA saying that they had used an unofficial booking service to get earlier test dates, paying an average of £122. Bookings made through the DVSA website cost £62 for weekdays and £75 for evenings, weekends or bank holidays. Preventing reselling Currently, instructors are able to book and manage tests for their pupils, and tests can be swapped between learners. The DVSA's consultation on removing these abilities stated that it wants to 'stop the mechanisms that make reselling possible'. It added: 'Preventing reselling rather than an outright ban is a better approach.' Lilian Greenwood, the minister for the future of roads, said: 'This consultation is an important move towards giving learners more say over how and where they can book, alongside setting out options to better enable DVSA to block bots from stealing slots, so learners can get on the road without unnecessary delays. 'Working with the DVSA, we want to make driving test booking fairer, protect all learners from exploitation and reduce lengthy waiting times.' Loveday Ryder, the DVSA chief executive, said the agency had been 'working tirelessly' to reduce waiting times. She added: 'DVSA's goal is to make booking a driving test easier and fairer for everyone while preventing excessive charges for learner drivers.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
YAHOO POLL: Have you used an automated bot before?
A bot is a software application that is programmed to do certain tasks. You may remember hearing about bots back in March 2023 when the Singapore government revealed around 200 ActiveSG accounts were suspended for suspected bot usage since 2021. Over 600 bookings were cancelled for on-selling activities. The news highlighted how bots can be used to abuse online booking systems and resell reservation slots. Other polls: YAHOO POLL: Do you agree with SDP's push for election system reform? YAHOO POLL: Do you support harsher punishments for animal abusers? YAHOO POLL: When in the day is best to take a shower? But sadly this was not an isolated incident. An army of bots also made its way into Singapore's driving schools. In September 2024, students were reporting that they were having to wait months to book lessons and increasingly being forced to rely on bots to secure practical slots due to high demand following the COVID-19 pandemic. In the post-pandemic world, the situation has not changed. Earlier this week, the Straits Times reported that many driving students are still having to resort to automated bots to book slots for lessons. So we want to know, have you used an automated bot before? Related Too many bots, too few instructors: Why the long wait for driving lessons in Singapore Singapore driving schools battle bots used by students forced to wait months to book for lessons 200 ActiveSG accounts suspended for suspected bot usage since 2021: Josephine Teo
BBC News
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
More or Less: Behind the Stats How dead is the internet?
In the early 2020s, a conspiracy theory started circulating online known as the 'dead internet theory'. This suggested that, instead of a vibrant digital super-community where people freely share things like cat videos and conspiracy theories, the internet was instead basically dead - an AI dystopia controlled by the deep state, where almost everything you see and interact with is generated by computers. The theory that the internet is 100% dead can be easily disproven, but the theory does hint at something real. The internet certainly is full of 'bots', autonomous bits of software that are definitely not alive. In this episode, we investigate one specific claim about the number of these bots on the internet - the idea that more than half of internet traffic is bots. Where does this claim come from, and is it true? Presenter/producer: Tom Colls Production co-ordinator: Brenda Brown Sound mix: Giles Aspen Editor: Richard Vadon
TechCrunch
06-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
Reddit will tighten verification to keep out human-like AI bots
Redditors around the world were scandalized last week after learning that a team of researchers released a swarm of AI-powered, human-impersonating bots on the 'Change My View' subreddit. The large-scale experiment was designed to explore just how persuasive AI can be. The bots posted over 1,700 comments, adopting personas like abuse survivors or controversial identities like an anti-Black Lives Matter advocate. For Reddit, the incident was a mini-nightmare. Reddit's brand is associated with authenticity — a place where real people come to share real opinions. If that human-focused ecosystem is disturbed with AI slop or becomes a place where people can't trust that they're getting information from actual humans, it could do more than threaten Reddit's core identity. Reddit's bottom line could be at stake, since the company now sells its content to OpenAI for training. The company condemned the 'improper and highly unethical experiment' and filed a complaint with the university that ran it. But that experiment was only one of what will likely be many instances of generative AI bots pretending to be humans on Reddit for a variety of reasons, from the scientific to the politically manipulative. To protect users from bot manipulation and 'keep Reddit human,' the company has quietly signaled an upcoming action – one that may be unpopular with users who come to Reddit for another reason: anonymity. On Monday, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman shared in a post that Reddit would start working with 'various third-party services' to verify a user's humanity. This represents a significant step for a platform that has historically required almost no personal information for users to create an account. 'To keep Reddit human and to meet evolving regulatory requirements, we are going to need a little more information,' Huffman wrote. 'Specifically, we will need to know whether you are a human, and in some locations, if you are an adult. But we never want to know your name or who you are.' Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | BOOK NOW (Social media companies have already started implementing ID checks after at least nine states and the U.K. and passed laws mandating age verification to protect children on their platforms.) A Reddit spokesperson declined to explain under what circumstances the company would require users to go through a verification process, though they did confirm that Reddit already takes measures to ban 'bad' bots. The spokesperson also wouldn't share more details about which third-party services the company would use or what kind of personally identifying information users would have to offer up. Many companies today rely on verification platforms like Persona, Alloy, Stripe Identity, Plaid, and Footprint, which usually require a government-issued ID to verify age and humanity. Then there's the newer and more speculative tech, like Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity and its eye-scanning 'proof of human' device. Opponents to ID checks say there are data privacy and security risks to sharing your personal information with social media platforms. That's especially true for a platform like Reddit, where people come to post experiences they maybe never would have if their names were attached to them. It's not difficult to imagine a world in which authorities might subpoena Reddit for the identity of, for example, a pregnant teen asking about abortion experiences on r/women in states where it is now illegal. Just look how Meta handed over private conversations between a Nebraska woman and her 17-year-old daughter, which discussed the latter's plans to terminate a pregnancy. Meta's assistance led law enforcement to acquire a search warrant, which resulted in felony charges for both the mother and daughter. That's exactly the risk Reddit hopes to avoid by tapping outside firms to provide 'the essential information and nothing else,' per Huffman, who emphasized that 'we never want to know your name or who you are.' 'Anonymity is essential to Reddit,' he said. The CEO also noted that Reddit would continue to be 'extremely protective of your personal information' and 'will continue to push back against excessive or unreasonable demands from public or private authorities.'
