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California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

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Re: California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

#22
post #4
post #2

I wish this legislation would also apply to AI generated emails, sales outreach, and LinkedIn messages.

Also, political SMS messages and the messages you get from some other random number acknowledging the "STOP" message you just sent. (Especially if it were in a machine readable form.)

I don’t think those are actually bots, unfortunately. There’s a law preventing automated text messages, but there’s a loophole if the message is sent by an actual human being. So campaigns and PACs just get teams of volunteers to send out messages, likely with some software that lets them send messages to a list of numbers with a single click.

Re: California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

#24
post #8

The requirement doesn't kick in until 10 million monthly US users. I don't see why this shouldn't apply to smaller businesses.

Contrarianly, startups should have a little maneuverability to be naughty. Any slight edge against incumbents is directionally sound policy, imho.

Re: California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

#25
A decade ago, when chat bots were a lot less useful, a common piece of etiquette was that it's fine for a bot to pretend to be a human or God or whatever, but if you directly ask it if it's a bot it has to confirm that. Basically of the bot version of that myth about undercover cops.

I don't see a downside in requiring public-facing bots to do that

Not sure if that's what the proposal is about though, it's currently down

Re: California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

#27
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, political SMS messages and the messages you get from some other random number acknowledging the "STOP" message you just sent. (Especially if it were in a machine readable form.)

For political stuff you need a human to press send. So it's a semi automated system. I've volunteered before, and at least in CA, you basically have a gui that prepolutes messages and guides you through each number one by one. Its really weird

Interesting! Does the same interface expose you to people’s responses, if any? That is, if I receive one of your campaign texts, am I indeed “texting with a person” both directions? Or does that route to a call center somewhere?

I note in TFA that it:

> expands current law, which only mandates disclosure when bots aim to influence commercial transactions or voting behavior.

I wonder if your campaign does it that way because of a rule that applies to particular type of actors, or just because voters viscerally hate robo-whatever.

The best-intentioned of regulations…

Re: California bill would require bots to disclose that they are bots

#29
post #8

The requirement doesn't kick in until 10 million monthly US users. I don't see why this shouldn't apply to smaller businesses.

Run 10 subsidiaries via a chain of shell companies, each carefully staying under, say, 8M monthly users, all relaying approximately the same messages, both by pure coincidence, and by admittedly blatant imitation of each other!
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