I guess this is the way to get rich quick now. Imagine a company with millions of fake users all created by a LLM app.
Hey, Reddit was all fake users at the start, making people think it was active and persuading them to join.
A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
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Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only one of those doesn't require your phone number. It'll be nice when we get to the point where we can have a proper working chat app that doesn't require one. Hangouts used to be great but Google has to always make sure their chat doesn't work.
Without a phone number how do you prevent abuse and spam?
Charge a fee
Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#33Are softbank actually the biggest idiots in VC? It almost seems like everything they invest in is a handshake deal built on "just trust me bro" numbers.
LOL I personally know an asshat VP at SoftBank — "just trust me bruh" !
In early 2017, while being ousted from another banking system, he advised me to invest in a Retail Mall Holdings company, instead of Bitcoin (because the latter is "idiotic").
I did NOT take his advice. See CBL's returns verse BTC's.
Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#34What was the remaining 5% real users?
The employees, investors and friends and family off?
Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you can’t automate that trivially
If I wanted to automate I would use a bulk VoIP service. You are focussing on the wrong point, I only mentioned that because I could get on these services with a disposable number.
So if you are so well versed in the matter, what’s keeping you from starting a chat service that doesn’t require phone numbers?
Apparently people are willing to invest a lot of money, that could be yours!
Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
It raises the cost for any spammer, including determined actors. More code, more complexity, plus the cost to actually rent the numbers. A lot of tech bros need to touch grass and realize that the rest of the world doesn’t mind giving their phone number to a chat app.
People shouldn’t be expected to give up their privacy and anonymity and put themselves at greater risk of identity theft because big tech can’t be bothered figuring out a different way to solve spam. Just because the rest of the world doesn’t mind giving out their phone number, it doesn’t mean it’s harmless. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get sim swapped and have all of my bank accounts drained because s…
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Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#37I remember this being a significant plot point in "Silicon Valley". I suppose life imitates art imitating life.
It even happened before with an app called Frank, where JP Morgan fell for it: https://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-claims-scammed-student-loan-...
Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#38Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#39I remember this being a significant plot point in "Silicon Valley". I suppose life imitates art imitating life.
It even happened before with an app called Frank, where JP Morgan fell for it: https://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-claims-scammed-student-loan-...
That didn't go well for anyone involved.
Re: A messaging app startup that raised $200M shuts down afters users were 95% fake
#40[flagged]