California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#1

Post by woodgrainz » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 3:49 AM UTC

California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure
newyorker.com

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#2

Post by Fjolsvith » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:08 AM UTC

So much for Dr. Eliza.

http://www.drdobbs.com/chatboteliza/199101503

https://www.cyberpsych.org/eliza/

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#3

Post by 14 » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

Fjolsvith wrote: post #2

So much for Dr. Eliza. http://www.drdobbs.com/chatboteliza/199101503 https://www.cyberpsych.org/eliza/

I don't think this spells an end to Dr. Eliza. From what I understand, it only has to be made known that it is a bot. The fact that Dr. Eliza is very clearly a bot from the get go makes it completely legit. I do however wonder about Ashley Madison as it was made evident that a lot of the woman on the site were just bots. Yes the bots are just there to talk to the men but they are there from the company to entice the men to upgrade their membership and pay so it seems to me this would make them fall under this law.

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#4

Post by inlined » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

Political ads on tv require disclosure. I see no reason disclosure rules shouldn’t apply on internet campaigns of all forms.

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#5

Post by scarejunba » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:31 AM UTC

If I make a generated face that speaks my stuff with a generated voice, is it a bot?

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#6

Post by llukas » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:33 AM UTC

scarejunba wrote: post #5

If I make a generated face that speaks my stuff with a generated voice, is it a bot?

Yes. Same as program you write to do "your stuff" is not you.

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#7

Post by ipsin » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:34 AM UTC

Fjolsvith wrote: post #2

So much for Dr. Eliza. http://www.drdobbs.com/chatboteliza/199101503 https://www.cyberpsych.org/eliza/

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml...

It's prohibited from trying to sell you something or influence your vote, but Eliza doesn't do either of those things...

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#8

Post by mirimir » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:36 AM UTC

> Violators could face fines under state statutes related to unfair competition.

I doubt that anyone running bots, and who is technically competent, will be identifiable or findable. I mean, I could do it, and I'm just a random anonymous coward.

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#9

Post by AnthonyMouse » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:36 AM UTC

That will be a fun one to interpret. So if I use autocorrect, am I a bot? What if the device makes next word suggestions and I use them? What if the device suggests the entire post, but I manually approve it? What if it suggests five separate posts and I approve them all at once?

Re: California law banning bots from pretending to be real people without disclosure

#10

Post by asutekku » Fri, Jul 05, 2019, 5:38 AM UTC

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #9

That will be a fun one to interpret. So if I use autocorrect, am I a bot? What if the device makes next word suggestions and I use them? What if the device suggests the entire post, but I manually approve it? What if it suggests five separate posts and I approve them all at once?

I wouldn’t classify that as a bot as there’s still human interaction required.