Latest news with #bots
Fox News
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Fox News
DAVID MARCUS: Your social media feed is being hijacked to divide MAGA supporters
As our society buries itself deeper and deeper into the cave of social media, we are seeing a growing divide between what happens in our real world and what we see on platforms like X and TikTok. A bombshell new report from the National Contagion Research Institute shows much of this is being directed by our foreign enemies. It also shows one of their top goals is to infiltrate and divide the MAGA movement. According to NCRI, Russia and Iran have been employing tens of thousands of bots to inject extreme rhetoric into American social media discourse, and perhaps more importantly, to artificially inflate the influence of content creators who push radical and divisive agendas. To quote one NCRI analyst, "If you talk to Republicans right now, more than 80% of them support the war against Iran. But if you go on Twitter [X] you get the sense that there is a civil war raging." This manipulation of social media by our enemies is far more insidious than most Americans realize, so let's walk through how this kind of information operation, the technical name for propaganda, works. Imagine, for example, that there was an obscure comedian, or Instagram model who began to "just ask questions," about why Jews run everything, or why black people commit crimes. Even better, they might post about how they aren't allowed to ask these very questions and insinuate that neither are you. At this point, according to the report, Russian and Iranian bot armies will begin to follow these radical accounts, massively pumping up their numbers. It will like and share the most divisive content, and work behind the scenes to make this person famous. On platforms that monetize interaction, this can mean very large payouts for creators, as spy bots mindlessly watch their videos over and over, and the beauty of it is that the content creator never even has to know they are getting paid off. When we talk about influencers being bought and paid for by foreign foes, it may not mean a duffle bag full of cash in a bus station locker, simply by using thousands of bots to juice the numbers, the social media companies themselves facilitate the payouts. Perhaps the most obvious way we can see this malign foreign influence online is in the incredible amount of casual racism and antisemitism, supposedly being posted by Americans, that we see on X. These hate posts range from straight-up Nazi apologism, to memes about fatherless black homes, or weird eugenics IQ graphs, and if their prevalence in the algorithm accurately reflects the level of racism in America, then this is a deeply racist country. Only it isn't. Because X does not accurately reflect our society, instead countries that despise America are infusing hate into the platform and propping up the handful of real people willing to push racism and division. What the Russian and Iranian bot farms hope we will believe is that America is full of secret racists who will only say their true beliefs through their anonymous personas, but this is absurd, America knows IRL, that that kind of racism is buried in our past. The question becomes, what can we do to fight back against this massive information operation aimed at our minds? Liberals have long taken the exact wrong approach, which is to try to protect the end user from malicious content. This always adds up to censorship, one way or the other. The better approach, at least as far as the government is concerned, is to target the bot farms and countries that back them. This can be done through cyberattacks, sanctions, any number of measures. There is also a role for the social media industry to play here. We are hearing growing calls for X to use a flag to identify the country of origin of its accounts. This would immediately help users see through the foreign operations. The silver lining in all of this, as the report shows, is that making the leap from influence on a social media screen to influence in the real world is not as easy as we might have once imagined. These foreign-backed influencers have few outlets they can go to off of social media. Sure, Piers Morgan may put on anyone with 250k followers no matter how awful they are, but Main Street America isn't seeing it. As a free society, America is by definition vulnerable to informational attacks, and as citizens in that free society all of us bear a responsibility to process the unfettered flow of information we have access to in responsible ways. Make no mistake, your social media feed is under direct foreign attack. So far, the attacks haven't done too much damage, but keeping it that way, first and foremost, starts with all of us.
Washington Post
12-06-2025
- Washington Post
‘This is coming for everyone': A new kind of AI bot takes over the web
People are replacing Google search with artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, a major shift that has unleashed a new kind of bot loose on the web. To offer users a tidy AI summary instead of Google's '10 blue links,' companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic have started sending out bots to retrieve and recap content in real time. They are scraping webpages and loading relevant content into the AI's memory and 'reading' far more content than a human ever would.
Gulf Business
09-06-2025
- Business
- Gulf Business
Insights: Why AI trader agents could be a valuable financial asset
Image: Supplied In today's digital trading landscape, automation has shifted from convenience to necessity. This is especially true in regions like the UAE and the Middle East, where rapid fintech adoption is transforming financial markets. As traders seek smarter execution, a critical distinction emerges between traditional trading bots and next-generation AI-powered trader agents. While both offer automation, they operate on fundamentally different principles — and knowing the difference is key to staying competitive. Traditional trading bots run on fixed, rule-based algorithms designed to execute predefined strategies such as arbitrage or trend-following. Their strength lies in speed and consistency when markets behave predictably. However, this rigidity quickly becomes a liability in volatile environments. Bots lack adaptability; they cannot adjust to shifting market conditions without manual intervention. Operating solely on structured data like price charts and technical indicators, they remain blind to external forces such as geopolitical developments, regulatory shifts, or social media sentiment — all of which heavily influence markets, particularly in the Middle East. Beyond their technical limitations, security risks further complicate bot usage. These systems require API access to user accounts, making them prime targets for cyberattacks. Technical glitches, erroneous trades, and system crashes are not uncommon. Despite their promise of efficiency, bots offer no guarantee of success — especially in dynamic markets shaped by both global and regional events. AI trader agents thrive where bots fall behind In contrast, AI trader agents represent a transformative leap in trading automation. These systems leverage machine learning and adaptive algorithms to continuously refine strategies based on both real-time and historical data. Crucially, they process not only structured but also unstructured data — analyzing news, blockchain activity, and market sentiment — giving them a contextual awareness that static bots simply cannot achieve. This adaptability is particularly relevant in the UAE, where the financial landscape is evolving rapidly. The country's Unlike deterministic bots that follow rigid 'if-this-then-that' logic, AI agents employ probabilistic decision-making. They weigh liquidity conditions, sentiment shifts, and risk-reward scenarios to dynamically adjust portfolios, manage risk in real-time, and even handle complex tasks like predictive analytics or DeFi strategies. These are critical capabilities in markets prone to sudden shifts. Balancing innovation with infrastructure Still, these advanced systems are not without challenges. AI trader agents require access to high-quality data, robust infrastructure, and significant computational power. Their complexity makes them costlier to develop and operate. The experimental nature of AI can lead to decision-making errors, and transparency remains a concern, as many models function as opaque 'black boxes.' Yet, the Middle East — and the UAE in particular — is uniquely positioned to overcome these barriers. The country's burgeoning fintech ecosystem, projected to reach $6.4bn From automation to intelligent wealth creation Traditional bots still hold value for executing repetitive strategies in stable conditions. But in today's fast-moving, data-rich markets — especially within the Middle East's unique economic and geopolitical context — adaptability is no longer optional. This is where AI trader agents shine, offering intelligent, responsive systems that evolve with market conditions. This is more than just automation. It's the dawn of intelligent wealth creation. As the UAE cements its status as a global fintech and AI leader, AI trader agents are poised to redefine financial participation. By offering scalable, adaptive tools that cater to all levels of traders, they bridge the gap between access and expertise — empowering users to trade smarter, not harder. Ultimately, they represent a paradigm shift in portfolio management, enabling 24/7 execution perfectly aligned with the region's economic diversification goals. The writer is the head of Blockchain Technologies at Exinity. Read:
The Independent
28-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Nancy Mace ran bot army, had staff run fake accounts to boost profile, report claims: ‘It's what she does for fun'
South Carolina's most outspoken member of Congress is reportedly putting her techie background to good use. Mace, a third-term House member with reported ambitions to run for governor, directs staffers to run countless bot accounts and fake social media profiles on her behalf — all with the aim of boosting Mace's content and messaging, according to a new report from Wired Wednesday that cited several unnamed former staffers and a consultant who publicly ended his contract with the congresswoman. The report quoted a deposition from Wesley Donehue, a South Carolina-based campaign consultant who previously worked closely with Mace's campaigns. The deposition, first reported a week earlier by a local conservative news blog, FITS News, was taken by attorneys for Mace's ex-fiancee — whom she accused of sexual assault, along with three other men, in a jarring moment during a congressional hearing. Wired's reporting echoed the claim made by Donehue, who told a court: 'She programs her own bots. She sets up Twitter burner accounts. This is the kind of a thing she does. She sits all night on the couch and programs bots, because she's very, very computer savvy. She controls her own voter database, she programs a lot of her own website, she programs Facebook bots and Instagram bots and Twitter bots. It's what she does for fun.' According to a staffer, Mace would allegedly order her underlings to identify criticism of her on social media; a slew of fake accounts would then pile on the offending account. 'We were congressional staff, and there were actual things we could be doing to help the constituents,' one said. The Independent has reached out to the congresswoman's office for comment. 'The only relationship the congresswoman cares about is her one with South Carolina,' said Sydney Long, according to the outlet. But that wasn't the case earlier this month when Mace showed a blurry image of what she said was her own naked body — an image she said was taken without her consent — during a congressional hearing as she called for stronger penalties for sexual offenders who film people without their knowledge in private spaces. Instead, Mace dragged four men including her ex-fiancee by name into the hearing and labeled them 'predators.' Patrick Bryant, her ex-fiancee, and the three other men have all maintained their innocence in regard to her accusations. Meanwhile, the deposition that Bryant forced Donehue to give revealed that Mace spent so much of her time on her 'relationships,' despite her staffer's denial, that it was the defining factor leading to Donehue abandoning her as a client and publicly disowning her. According to FITS News, Donehue said under oath that the congresswoman wanted him constantly 'to intervene in her relationship problems with Patrick Bryant' and later 'asked me to blackmail Patrick Bryant'. He went on to call her a 'chronic liar who constantly plays the victim card for her own benefit.' 'Nancy talks about her sex life in a way that I've never heard a client or a woman talk,' Donehue added. 'This goes beyond Patrick. This is with multiple partners. She loves talking about sex,' he claimed. According to Donehue, 'every conversation would devolve into what's going on in her sex life…something that she talked about all the time and I always felt uncomfortable with.' The congresswoman has been one of the most polarizing figures on the Hill since she arrived. A onetime 'NeverTrumper', she like others completed an evolution into a pro-Trump believer that saved her from successive primary challenges backed by both Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker. She was one of a small group of GOP rebels who ousted McCarthy as speaker of the House in 2023. She's no stranger to accusations of her own, with staffers calling her abusive and 'toxic'. Between 2023-2024, her office underwent more staff turnover than any other — with every single staff member quitting and being replaced over the course of one year.
Telegraph
28-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Driving instructors face ban on booking tests to stop bots taking slots
Driving instructors could be banned from reserving tests to stop bots from mass-booking new slots. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is also considering preventing bookings from being swapped between candidates. Learners currently face a huge backlog to take a driving test, with 603,000 future tests booked as of the end of April – up from 521,000 a year ago. The demand for tests has prompted an influx of bots that use complex systems to block-book new slots so they can be resold on the black market for inflated prices. Nearly a third of learners, newly qualified drivers and their parents or guardians responded to a call for evidence by the DVSA saying that they had used an unofficial booking service to get earlier test dates, paying an average of £122. Bookings made through the DVSA website cost £62 for weekdays and £75 for evenings, weekends or bank holidays. Preventing reselling Currently, instructors are able to book and manage tests for their pupils, and tests can be swapped between learners. The DVSA's consultation on removing these abilities stated that it wants to 'stop the mechanisms that make reselling possible'. It added: 'Preventing reselling rather than an outright ban is a better approach.' Lilian Greenwood, the minister for the future of roads, said: 'This consultation is an important move towards giving learners more say over how and where they can book, alongside setting out options to better enable DVSA to block bots from stealing slots, so learners can get on the road without unnecessary delays. 'Working with the DVSA, we want to make driving test booking fairer, protect all learners from exploitation and reduce lengthy waiting times.' Loveday Ryder, the DVSA chief executive, said the agency had been 'working tirelessly' to reduce waiting times. She added: 'DVSA's goal is to make booking a driving test easier and fairer for everyone while preventing excessive charges for learner drivers.'
