End-of-year link cleanout: Chatbots on comments, calendars, and Chevies

The fake-engagement-comment generators have discovered the chatbots. A comment I got on this fanwork roundup post (you won’t see it in the wild, I marked it spam):

Loved reading this

I really enjoyed reading this blog post! The artwork and sketches are amazing, especially the hotel balcony hug. It’s so heartwarming! I have a question, though. Can you tell me more about the Moth Knight(s) fic? How does it tie in with the Moon Knight and Miraculous Ladybug universes? I really enjoyed reading this blog post! The artwork and sketches are amazing, especially the hotel balcony hug. It’s so heartwarming! I have a question, though. Can you tell me more about the Moth Knight(s) fic? How does it tie in with the Moon Knight and Miraculous Ladybug universes?

[full name, redacted]
[URL of a blog that’s all SEO-bait posts about dog care, redacted]

Points that stand out:

• The start and end must be part of a template, then they paste the ChatGPT output in the middle. This spammer hit ctrl+V twice
• Solid keyword association: it accurately predicted that a link titled “Hotel balcony hug” would be “heartwarming”
• Context failure: the bot asked a question about Moth Knight(s) question that a human would’ve gotten answered by…clicking through and reading the fic

And some final generative-AI news for the year:

2021-2023: “I asked it for a “set of Christmas-themed images, clearly labeled in capital letters as an aid to someone learning English.” I could then pick my favorite images out of the set.” Three years of AI-generated advent calendars, for all your HOT CHOCATE, GINGERBOMAN, SNOW GLOI, and ICE SMAT needs.

August 2023: “You were doing incredibly important work within Google around diversity and equity and inclusion. And it was a giant PR fiasco for them, as well as a really challenging situation for you. Why is this such a dangerous piece of research? What’s in the Stochastic Parrots paper?” (Audio, with transcript.)

December 2023: “Imagine destroying all of your Diabetes meds because you trusted Google’s highlighting.” AI-generated SEO-bait articles call Mounjaro (a weekly injectable diabetes medication) “a delicious and versatile ingredient” that you may have “an abundance of…from your garden,” and says “you can gently reheat it in the microwave or oven.”

December again: A Chevrolet dealership tries to use ChatGPT for their online customer chatbot. Results: “I just bought a 2024 Chevy Tahoe for $1.“