Metaverse Bots: How To Spot Them, What To Do With Them?

Do the Lindens plan to address the impact of bots on Traffic stats?  After three unsuccessful attempts to get a reply (any reply) on that question from their PR representative, that remains unknown.  Meantime, I discovered this Jira feature request vote from Haravikk Mistral, suggesting that Traffic be eliminated as a metric altogether, largely in protest against bot farms.  Go here to review and vote on it, if that's your inclination.

A larger question remains, regardless of what happens to Traffic-- how exactly do you recognize a bot?  In the novel that inspired Blade Runner, Philip K. Dick had a fanciful machine that did the job, called a Voight-Kampff.  In Second Life, that's quickly becoming a practical necessity.  But what's the best avatar-based Voigt-Kampff test? 

When I wrote about the issue a few weeks ago, I happened on two sites that seemed to have bot farms.  My unsophisticated Voight-Kampff was to go right up to apparent bots and say, "Are you a bot?"  At one nightclub, I didn't get a single reply, leading me to conclude, "bot".  But as I found out at the other site, that's not a reliable method.  I eventually did get a reply from Residents who were just away from keyboard-- even though it sometimes took a few hours to respond.  (Or in the case of some, 12+ hours.)

And in any event, what happens when the bot farmers program their bots to have minimal AI and conversational abilities, a technology which already exists?  I can see the fun in not knowing if the avatar you're dancing with has a human being controlling her.  But at some point, isn't there an ethical obligation for bot owners to clearly designate them as such?

Comments

[Tracey Sassoon]

It would be great if they remove traffic or make traffic 1 count per 1 individual avatar per 24 hour period of time not minutes

Many of us have camping zones the past few months to try and compete against the 80+ bot farms

I cant wait till we no longer have that to compete with and word of mouth or a realistic traffic is used

best to you

[Otenth Paderborn]

A "resident" who sits, unspeaking, with a large group of other unspeaking avatars and only notices and responds to chat after 12 hours IS a bot. Perhaps we should propose a feature where we can mark an avatar as AFK/a bot; if 5 people all do so within an hour, that avatar is booted. If there's a person at the keyboard, they can just log back in.

[Troy McLuhan]

Clipping from the future:

"At some point in 2007, so-called 'bots' were introduced into the Second Life grid to boost traffic numbers on land parcels, thereby pushing those parcels higher in search results... In order to distinguish bots from real people, sophisticated tests were developed. These tests were quickly turned into training systems for better bots... the resulting arms race caused a rapid improvement in machine intelligence and is widely regarded as a turning point..."

See also: Turing Test

[Tateru Nino]

I disagree, Otenth - there are days that I'm buried in IMs for many hours at a time. Too busy to notice new IM sessions or local chat.

[Rohan Freeman]

We have a bot system that allows anyone in Second Life to log in alts and give them complex tasks to undertake - as sales assistants, performing artists, etc.

Our bots are hard wired so that if you say to it "Are you a bot?" It replies confirming it is a bot, and also gives you the name of the avatar responsible for it. We've been lobbying the Lindens for some time to give bots a yellow dot status on the map and to give them different coloured hover text.

I think bots have a real role to play in virtual worlds - but we should use them as we use any other asset - they should be visible and immediately identifiable.

[Cyn Vandeverre]

I'm mostly with Otenth; there are bots, and there are campers, and although there are some differences, there's an overlapping area of annoyance in both of them. Granted, they also have some usefulness, such as the scene decor uses mentioned (window washers, etc.) but the reason regular residents don't like them is because of Traffic.

[Uccello Poultry]

Having once erroneously sold some land at a ridiculously low price within minutes of it's posting, it was my misfortune to learn about LandBots. But recently I believe my partner has been the victim of a new kind of bot: the DemographicBot.

A group has been creating bots that simply teleport into the Isle of Lesbos where my partner and I work Security and then teleport out without any discernible activity. An unsolicited IM she received from the group owner not long after made me believe that the bot was gathering information about individuals present on the sim.

I don't see this as a coincidence, especially since I visited the source of the bot and found the previously docile bots walking, talking, and interacting. They actually seemed to be learning to some degree.

Before all this I had met the interactive Mall Manager bot at Mysteria so I knew that a DemographicBot of sorts was possible. And a member of our Security team further confirmed to me that this was possible when she recently created her own bot.

But what does this mean for privacy? And who decides?

Obviously SL provides some unique tools such as radar and avatar scanners that would be of questionable legality in the real world. Thus far privacy decisions have been left to the individual by determining what they put in their profiles or publish elsewhere and land owners who can allow or disallow entrance by other avatars. Now if an avatar hides their membership to a group (only group members can see the Isle of Lesbos affiliation in other member's profiles, for example) but can still be associated with it by being recorded by a bot as present in the group's sim, is that a violation of privacy?

[Jaymin Carthage]

@Uccello. This isn't really a bot question. I believe that Tateru Nino does, pretty much, the same thing when compiling her demographic charts.
The question is if that sort of behavior violates the expectation of privacy in general. The bot just automates the process.

[nox Pinion]

"there are days that I'm buried in IMs for many hours at a time. Too busy to notice new IM sessions or local chat"

That may be, Tateru, but are you doing so in a dance club or in a shop? And if so, you are contributing to potential lag.

[Patrick]

Bots love 80s music and hate the water. I keep that in mind when looking for one. Also, they don't like camping, unlike humans.
Additionally, you can ask one of them to use Voice and you'll be surprised how naturalistic they sound. Plus, bots don't panic if there's a need for a doctor.
Overall, I would say their presence is a plus.

[Extropia DaSilva]

'But at some point, isn't there an ethical obligation for bot owners to clearly designate them as such?'

I would suggest that anyone who creates a bot that is able to pass itself off as a person should enter it into the Loebner prize for artificial intelligence, because it might just earn them $100,000 for passing the Turing Test.

Extropia DaSilva- does not question the intelligence of most humans. She knows the answer already;)

[A.T.]

I like those humans who do accept avatar concept but afraid to compete with soul-less piece of dioxide silicon :) I think this is just sign of insecurity, and insecurity comes from lack of information - just go and face it Facebook group "the botopia™ group -- chatbots, artificial intelligence and virtual reality" (requires FB acct) and their site botopia.net (don't scare away from homepage, *meat* is not on surface).

[Lotus Li]

i have had to actualy move my home because of these darn bots!

i have had for a couple months naked newbies with no eyes log in over and over into my home which i had been living in for quite a while.

traffic listed my visitors from 5 a week to about 40 odd. this was with a visioter list maker.

i started out banning them. but then clothed people came too. i am not sure how it all started. all i know is now i have started my store there in the hope some may be actuall people!

perhaps my land lord can move the platform i am on so they fall down...

lol For now though i some ties have fun freezing and ejecting their freaky naked newbie bums off my place!

love to know what else can be done !!!