OPENAI
What if your favourite Reddit thread is just AI talking to AI?
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman raised a concern this week: social media is starting to feel “fake.”
While browsing the r/Claudecode subreddit, Altman noticed a wave of posts praising OpenAI’s Codex and switching from Anthropic’s Claude Code.
But there were so many similar posts that he questioned whether they were written by real people or bots.
Altman believes several things are driving this “bot-like” feeling online:
People are starting to sound like AI models without realising it.
Social media pushes extreme, fast-moving trends to boost engagement.
Creators and platforms rely on clicks and monetisation, shaping what gets posted.
Are we in a simulation or something?
He also mentioned the possibility of astroturfing, when companies or contractors pay people or bots to post positive or negative content.
There’s no proof it’s happening here, but OpenAI has seen backlash before.
After the GPT-5 launch, OpenAI’s subreddits were flooded with complaints about personality changes and credit usage.
Altman admitted to rollout issues during a Reddit Q&A, but user trust hasn’t fully returned.
The bigger issue: bots are everywhere.
Data from Imperva shows that over 50% of internet traffic in 2024 came from bots and AI tools. On X, estimates suggest hundreds of millions of bots are active today.
Some also believe Altman’s comments could hint at OpenAI’s rumoured social media platform, though nothing is confirmed.
But even if a new platform launches, experts say keeping bots out completely is unlikely.
We created AI to talk like us and now… we talk like AI. LIKE?!