Why cute political bots should not distract us from the human hand behind them
When we personify, we risk losing sight of the agency and responsibility bot creators and bot users have During the 2019 federal election campaign, concerns about foreign interference and scary “Russian bots” dominated conversation. From detecting online toxicity to replacing traditional polling, political bot creators are experimenting with artificial intelligence to automate analysis of social media data. People make bots It is tempting to think of SAMbot or Polly as friends, helping us understand the confusing mess of political chatter on social media. Bots are black boxes — meaning their inputs and operations aren’t visible to users or other interested parties — and right now bot creators are mostly just suggesting: “It’s doing what we want it to, trust us.” The problem is, what goes on in those black boxes can be extremely varied and messy, and small choices can have massive knock-on effects.
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