#Technology
#EU bans the #bots: Commission bars ‘AI agents’ from joining online meetings
AI-powered assistants are becoming a popular business and consumer tool. The #EU says “no thanks” for now.
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-ban-bot-european-commission-bar-ai-agent-join-online-meeting/
Searching for @followbot at my Profile Seach, I get:
"Followbot
Automated
Personal note
This bot is used to improve federation of my instance.
Feel free to follow back, I won't post anything.
I should be respecting #nobot if it's in your bio."
[French deleted]
If this concerns you, #Mute and #Block
Personally I have no interests in building a bot's (and its owner's) Following account stats
Why can't the owner just Follow profiles organically like every one else?
'The [#UK #driving test agency] says that #bots have been buying up some test slots, external and then reselling them at inflated prices. The agency says a high-speed consultation in May will aim "to improve the booking system and block bots from accessing tests"'.
Tick all boxes where you see a #car?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4v12p9e82o
**En 2024, 51 % du trafic web a été généré par des bots automatisés**
"Les robots utilisés par les grands modèles de langage (LLM) pour indexer le web ne sont que la partie émergée de l'iceberg. Une étude portant sur le trafic web des clients d'une entreprise de cybersécurité proposant des services de lutte contre les bots avance que 37 % émanerait en effet de « robots malveillants » (contre 19 % il y a 10 ans), contre 14 % pour les robots légitimes, et 49 % pour les internautes humains (contre plus de 60 % il y a encore 5 ans)."
#bots
https://next.ink/182031/en-2024-51-du-trafic-internet-a-ete-genere-par-des-bots-automatises/
Everyone is replacing their support departments with AI these days. I just tried twice to deal with the immensely dim bot on the phone with the public postal service in Norway.
It kept rambling on for ages with no way to interrupt to clarify. Such an incredible waste of time for a very simple request.
I hate this stuff so, so much. 
"This report outlines several case studies on how actors have misused our models, as well as the steps we have taken to detect and counter such misuse. By sharing these insights, we hope to protect the safety of our users, prevent abuse or misuse of our services, enforce our Usage Policy and other terms, and share our learnings for the benefit of the wider online ecosystem. The case studies presented in this report, while specific, are representative of broader patterns we're observing across our monitoring systems. These examples were selected because they clearly illustrate emerging trends in how malicious actors are adapting to and leveraging frontier AI models. We hope to contribute to a broader understanding of the evolving threat landscape and help the wider AI ecosystem develop more robust safeguards.
The most novel case of misuse detected was a professional 'influence-as-a-service' operation showcasing a distinct evolution in how certain actors are leveraging LLMs for influence operation campaigns. What is especially novel is that this operation used Claude not just for content generation, but also to decide when social media bot accounts would comment, like, or re-share posts from authentic social media users. As described in the full report, Claude was used as an orchestrator deciding what actions social media bot accounts should take based on politically motivated personas. Read the full report here."
https://www.anthropic.com/news/detecting-and-countering-malicious-uses-of-claude-march-2025
This is the beginning of the end. The turning of the internet into a bot swamp.
Russia was first, now it’s going to be the police. Next private companies are gonna do it, and it’s going to be mass sentiment manipulation.
Simulating humans should have been made illegal the minute we thought of the tools that could pull it off.
https://www.wired.com/story/massive-blue-overwatch-ai-personas-police-suspects/
#ai #bots #police #informants
There's a lot that could still be improved in #swad, but I don't get that "proof of work" idea out of my mind, so I started a branch to work on it:
https://github.com/Zirias/swad/pull/1
I really think it makes sense when you want some publicly known "guest login" which is still protected against #bots. Not sure yet whether this will succeed, we will see!
It certainly won't be as "fancy" as #anubis, but do the same thing functionally: Require the client to find a #nonce that, combined with a server-provided #challenge, hashes to something with 'n' leading zeros using #sha256. In contrast to anubis, swad won't have to proxy everything (but rely on nginx' auth_request), and no challenge will be issued when the user logs in with credentials some *other* credentials checker accepts.
![Add a credentials checker that accepts the result of some "proof of work" (of the same kind used in "anubis") instead of a password. This should allow well-known "guest log...](https://media.norden.social/cache/preview_cards/images/022/945/449/original/c2a6f3d73ca9db09.png "Add a credentials checker that accepts the result of some "proof of work" (of the same kind used in "anubis") instead of a password. This should allow well-known "guest log...")
Join @ishotjr and a panel of special guests as we explore the world of humanoid #robots! We show you how to use #AI and #OpenSource to build #bots from #humanoid heads to four-legged friends! Register now for our Thursday, May 15th V93 #LaunchParty! 
En 2024, 51 % du trafic #Internet a été généré par des #bots automatisés - https://next.ink/182031/en-2024-51-du-trafic-internet-a-ete-genere-par-des-bots-automatises/
> Les robots utilisés par les grands modèles de langage (#LLM) pour indexer le web ne sont que la partie émergée de l'iceberg. 37 % du trafic Internet émanerait en effet de « robots malveillants » (contre 19 % il y a 10 ans), contre 14 % pour les robots légitimes, et 49 % pour les internautes humains (contre plus de 60 % il y a encore 5 ans).
On déprime ou bien ? On déprime.
This is what happens when companies decide to use bots for Customer service with no way to get a real person.
I realize that this article doesn’t claim at any point that the police were talking to #bots, but the thing is if the Customer service rep was an actual person they would have escalated this immediately, and then that supervisor could have escalated it immediately until they got someone to simply CALL THE DRIVER. That that’s really all it would take.
If they didn’t want to give the driver’s information to the person on the phone claiming to be the police, if it was a human being and not a bot talking to the cops, they would have contacted the driver themselves for the police and the customer and the child still in the car.
An Uber drove away with her kid. Then Uber wouldn't connect her or police with the driver | CBC News https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/uber-drives-off-with-child-1.7513379
Anubis: self hostable scraper defense software | Anubis
@debby @DroidPort personally, I think the "optics" of leaving the #Fediverse are more important and are seen as silent confirmation of valid criticism.
Cuz even if I'd be annoying the shit out of @protonprivacy (and I doubt that!) there are ample of tools for them like #muting and #blocking.
"Matthew Thomas, Pinal County Deputy Sheriff, told the county council he “can’t get into great detail” about what Massive Blue is and that doing so would “tip our hand to the bad guys.” What they were doing is buying online #bots https://www.404media.co/this-college-protester-isnt-real-its-an-ai-powered-undercover-bot-for-cops/?ref=daily-stories-newsletter
@briankrebs I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
Using computers to impersonate humans should be made into a serious crime.
"American police departments near the United States-Mexico border are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an unproven and secretive technology that uses AI-generated online personas designed to interact with and collect intelligence on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and suspected drug and human traffickers, according to internal documents, contracts, and communications 404 Media obtained via public records requests.
Massive Blue, the New York-based company that is selling police departments this technology, calls its product Overwatch, which it markets as an “AI-powered force multiplier for public safety” that “deploys lifelike virtual agents, which infiltrate and engage criminal networks across various channels.” According to a presentation obtained by 404 Media, Massive Blue is offering cops these virtual personas that can be deployed across the internet with the express purpose of interacting with suspects over text messages and social media.
Massive Blue lists “border security,” “school safety,” and stopping “human trafficking” among Overwatch’s use cases. The technology—which as of last summer had not led to any known arrests—demonstrates the types of social media monitoring and undercover tools private companies are pitching to police and border agents. Concerns about tools like Massive Blue have taken on new urgency considering that the Trump administration has revoked the visas of hundreds of students, many of whom have protested against Israel’s war in Gaza."
https://www.404media.co/this-college-protester-isnt-real-its-an-ai-powered-undercover-bot-for-cops/
The Knot Accused of Selling ‘Fake’ Leads to Wedding Photographers https://petapixel.com/2025/04/17/the-knot-accused-of-selling-fake-leads-to-wedding-photographers/ #thenewyorker #WeddingWire #Features #feature #theknot #expose #fraud #News #bots #spam
interfering in political elections.
