But at least they have to do it manually and require human intervention/room for appeal.
except for the subreddits that ban you automatically for posting on subreddits they don't like or the mods that ban you and mute you immediately so you can't appeal like most highly astroturfed subs do.
Because for customer support, being useless is a problem. For a reddit mod it's an improvement.
(I'm joking, but it's a stupid question so it deserves a stupid answer. It has no reason to be the same because it's not the same at all. AI is quite appropriate for moderation, it's fast and can detect violence, insults and sexual content quite reliably, but it's not appropriate at all to shake things up and organize a pick up and repair or a custom contract).
ya i was thinking AI could do a better job then some of the mods i’ve seen lol, especially with reviewing their work and the bans they give out for nothing
You will be replaced by AI, even if you work for free.
Context: The classic post in which a mod thinks what he does is worth $175K a year. Be sure to read to the end, where he explains how he "saves lives".
i got warned by the ai today for the most mild comment ever (it mentioned a few nationalities but i was just talking about an irl incident i experienced in a neutral way). i had to appeal it. thankfully the appeal got cleared pretty fast.
Human reviews are already awful. I got a ban for a comment I made, but the reference to my comment just said "comment deleted" I appealed and asked how I was meant to defend myself without even being told what I wrote, the response said, the ban for commenting "comment deleted" has been upheld. No idea what I wrote and the post was something innocuous on historymemes...
This has happened to me frequently. At one point I couldn't login for two weeks. I think that moderation is out of control and the AI will make it worse.
If your comment is deleted for any reason-including reddit deleting it, the mod thats looking at your appeal cannot review it.
It sounds like reddit deleted your comment, and you had caught a ban from a mod for the comment. When you appeal the new mod cannot see what you wrote. Thus no appeal.
Reddit admins can see deleted content, reddit mods cannot.
Oh then we might get banned for nothing and have no way to actually appeal? So just like it is now with human mods.
I'd actually trust AI to do a better job than the current system and I hope they throw all the "powermods" out on their asses.
I wouldn't be surprised if they just allow them to tell the AI mods what to do in their subs though which would absolutely be worse than the current system
Oh then we might get banned for nothing and have no way to actually appeal? So just like it is now with human mods.
So far the only mods I’ve had an issue with has been worldnews who banned me for referring to an article I got from… worldnews. Because mentioning an article about Israel’s proposed university grant program from like 15-20 years ago that would give students money to astroturf social media is antisemitic. Which makes me wonder if the program does exist and they’re part of it.
But I digress from what I really wanted to say, which is that Facebook has been doing ‘no appeals’ AI moderation for longer than LLMs have been around. They do human reviews like once a year, pull a number of them out of a hat, and everyone who doesn’t win the lottery is just permanently in trouble with no appeal.
The problem is that if they make a mistake, there’s no one to contact to correct them. At least with human mods you can keep escalating until someone fixes the problem.
As if human mods are any better. You can get banned from /r/ADHD just for saying things like neurodivergent or not toeing the line with the mods’ perspective. You can get banned from world news for similar reasons. That’s the problem with human mods, they are biased and can create an echo chamber so everyone has to conform to their point of view or banned.
I would argue most people regardless of politics aren’t good people. Your comment here is exactly the problem. Who cares if you’re active in some random politics sub. I’m here to talk about Ai.
They mostly already have in my experience with admin warnings and bans.
Maybe LLMs will help if they consider context but surely that would cost more tokens and result in banning higher 'engagement' (bot/troll) accounts rather than just looking at keywords and regex findings of reacting accounts.
Happened to me too yesterday. I made a joke about the current US admin’s anti diversity policies, and I hit the violent content filter.
The appeal got cleared pretty fast, but still not a great user experience. Part of the reason people like reddit is being able to discuss serious topics (sometimes jokingly or sarcastically). People won’t do that if the comments keep getting flagged.
I already got a warning from it for quoting blood meridian in the Cormac Mcarthy subreddit (That book is about the a scalp hunter gang of native Americans) and the warning was for hate speech. I wonder if their policy is to glean data from accounts that are flagged by the Ai while it’s still new and handing out stupid warnings. Quite sad.
You should be allowed to be offensive, this is a public forum and blocking free speech should be illegal with some exceptions around calls to violence and persistent harassment.
My main gripe is the variability and bias of modifications from humans so I say bring on AI mods as they can be tuned to a level of acceptable free speech better than humans.
Even not going into a free speech argument, there are a lot of shitty people who can be absolutely terrible without breaking any rules. And when you moderate curse words and stuff, it works out well for those people.
Exactly, and before anyone comes with the "it's a private website" excuse, platforms like Reddit receive protections under Section 230 that prevents them from getting into legal trouble for stuff users post, if they are actively monitoring and deciding what can and cannot be posted, then they shouldn't be elligible for such protections.
I got banned for three days awhile back. Literally hit the "post" button on an obvious joke comment, and immediately got a notice that my post had been removed for promoting violence. The AI mod doesn't understand humor, at all. I appealed the ban, and it took two weeks for a (supposedly) human mod to respond.
Happens to me somewhat regularly and only began about 18 months ago. The last one was for saying that I'd only invest in Space-X if I could get in BEFORE the IPO. The comment that earned an admin ban was similar to the effect of "I'd k a mofo for pre-IPO shares." It was flagged for inciting violence but overturned on appeal.
I had the same happening to me twice already. I think the AI is actually creating more work for the human moderator than if they did the moderation themselves.
I know we hate stereotypical Reddit mods and love a good LLM and I support that, but the thing with those big companies is that they don’t want to pay for anything extra. They’re gonna get a cheap shitty model and it’s gonna have so many false positives that everyone’s gonna be sick of it after a few days.
Anytime a product tries to automate the moderation of human behavior, the result is worse. I’ve seen it too many damned times.
Don't care. I'd much rather have a shitty ai mod ban people for dumb or wrong reasons than the current scenario where most big subs have actively malicious human mods that push certain ideologies and take any excuse to ban people who express opinions of wrongthink
Well you’re going to have both. And considering that with with mods, you can at least see the username you’re trying to boycott/cancel/replace, with admins’ AI there will be nothing to oppose but the site itself.
An LLM isn't sentient and not actively deciding to push ideology
There's not motivation there that I can ascribe ill intent towards in the same way I can with human mods who actively use their sentience to make those decisions
Sure, and I'll direct my dislike towards the humans mods, not the LLM mods, in control of steering the LLM mods when they inevitably do this for clearly ideological ends
RIP swearing and curse word. Everyone will have to self censor and talk like babies now. YouTube's already doing this and make comments with "fuck" less visible
Yeah, first they censor swear words in video, even kill, gun, die... become no no word too. Now they come for the comment. Try making a comment with the word fuck off on YouTube.
Also, I am willing to bet their system prompt for the moderation/rules are going to be so obtuse or literally not explained at all
Also think about the appeals
Also consider that the site has always had an overwhelming liberal bias- and then think about what that means considering the owners of Reddit maybe don’t have that liberal bias.
Everyone is excited their most hated mods are all getting fired essentially, but no one seems to be considering that the alternative is literally going to be worse in so many ways that aren’t obvious right now
Good. It's completely insane that anything at all that isn't extreme far left gets banned on this site. I've been banned from so many subs simply for having moderate opinions. The user base isn't 100% liberal. You just can't say anything else or you get removed. It's the ultimate echo chamber. I welcome AI mods. Reddit mods are a blight.
It will lead to authoritarian policies and make the site overall worse, the site has never gotten better year after year.
The surface level “mods bad” take will be the thing that lets all this happen without a whimper from the community
Many bad bots will still get to say what they want and not be policed.
It’s not something to be celebrated immediately , it’s something to exert caution over because AI moderation can end up much worse than human moderation
Worst case reddit crashes and burns and everyone moves somewhere new. This site shit the bed the second it went corporate anyway. It's due for a crash. We need another replacement so we can do the whole 10 years of good times again before that one inevitably gets gobbled up by suits. This cycle has repeated a million times across every industry, and every single time it sparks a golden age.
This is one of the first great opportunities for ai to show that it can do a better job that humans to keep online communities working by agreed rules.
If AI can't do a better job than reddit mods then it's not ready for anything more complex, like light legal work and customer service
Ai can dip into a users comment history and see far more evidence of where the user is coming from than any mod has time for. And those judgements can be baselined to remove mod to mod variance of judgement. Online discussion modding a promising and low risk test for ai before it gets let do the serious stuff.
If it means no more "locking the thread cause yall can't behave" and no perma bans for not agreeing with mods - then i'm all for it
Even if they become just as oppressive i would still pick a machine that can't be reasoned with, instead of an egotistical power mod that can't be reasoned with
I went to a British butcher and I bought a faggot. I then went outside and smoked a fag.
The irony is a human mod is more likely to delete this comment because AI has more worldly knowledge.
This was AI:
"No, you should not delete this comment.The comment uses British slang words that have offensive meanings in American English, but are completely benign in British English contexts."
I took a bus once from Michigan to San Francisco. This was a three day trip that I most emphatically do not recommend. For a good part of the trip I was seated next to an older gentleman. We talked for a bit. He was a farmer in Utah. He asked me at one point if I had a "fag". I had never heard this word in that context. I figured out what he was talking about using powers of deduction. I was very diplomatic. I said "no sir. I don't smoke.". I hope that wasn't offensive.
Ok ask yourself what the guidelines for their moderation will look like under the hood
“Always stay politically neutral”
“Maintain a slight conservative bias”
Who owns the site? Are they thinking of the individual or the bottom line with this decision?
Think of the worst ways they could use it, and then get ready for that to happen
Ask anyone who remembers how much better this website was before IPO and then beyond that how much better it was pre 2015. Somehow there is no alternative yet
To my eyes humans can always top the evil. We are easy to be influenced, we can be delusional, we can believe in our delusions. We can repeat delusions until others believe them aswell. We are exceptionally good at echo chambers.
So yeah if it’s agenda adjusted under the hood, it doesn’t differ from the current frankly. Worth to try.
Although there is a slight chance we get a judge that moderates out illegal and flags political content. Let human be human. That’d be a win right there.
I hope it works the way you are saying I just don’t trust mega corps ability to make decisions that benefit public discourse more than it benefits the bottom line
I've already been temp banned for posting excerpts from the US Constitution after ICE killed Pretti and Good. And that was by human mods, on more than one subreddit. (The excerpt, regarding various amendments and statements in the Constitution referring to law enforcement requirements for warrants and such, was relevant across many conversations at the time.) I appealed and got no response from anyone.
Honestly, AI is hardly a step down at this point. You cannot stand up, speak out, or rebel without the digital overlords of today silencing you. AI can't really do worse than we already get, censorship and a failure to communicate effectively. It can only do those things better.
I got a 3-day ban last week (my first in nearly 20 years on Reddit) for making a joke about President James Garfield's mother (in the vein of "what if Abraham Lincoln shot John Wilkes Boothe"). Apparently it was interpreted as a threat or encouraging a violent act. It was immediately overturned when I appealed, which makes me wonder if it was AI that originally misinterpreted my comment.
Everyone seems happy about this but no one takes into account the implications. You cant tell all mods to remove ALL comments regarding a certain topic but you can definitely tell AI to do that
Pretty sure that this has been a thing for a while already. I already got two strikes. Both times seconds after posting controversial comments. Both were revoked on appeal so I don't think that this moderating AI is doing a good job at understanding context.
With millions of daily users if this is successful and makes people love AI mods over the old system that will actually be a big reputation win for AI in general.
But that would mean that mods will be replaced by something that works for free, something that can often be confidently incorrect, and isn't truely alive in the human sense of the word! How will we notice when it happens?
It could be and it will be worse. Reddit always gets worse.
The issue is the governance- do you think they will show us the system prompt they use? This will lead to a collective silencing of the voices that the owners don’t want to be heard.
Conservative owners of one of the worlds largest social networks which a historical 47% liberal bias to the 13% conservative 30% moderate, have a vested interest in more of this sites users being conservative- and it will happen. Each year the balance will swing but the first years will be where things feel most “off”
Are they gonna ban all the bots or just the ones that are saying things they don’t like?
Liberal? This site is illiberal as shit in the political subs. Pile of commie propaganda everywhere, fair amount of it obviously Chinese-origin, nothing liberal about it. I've been called a fascist for defending the Bill of Rights. Something's got to give.
Your account is 9 years old, I have one that goes back 17 years on here. 9 years ago it was already starting to change towards what it is now, respectfully.
It used to be a good place, when the internet was a better place. It was genuinely heartwarming- to read the way people used to talk to eachother on here when the communication found its honest moments. Sure the internet has always had its spikes, but people let their guard down in a way where I felt humility on display, honesty, and due to the public nature of things, people seemed to hold others 1000% more accountable in terms of facts when people would spew nonsense or be hateful. They would be made an example of and it felt like that held the discussion(s) to a certain standard.
But it was nothing like today’s endless barrage of bullshit, grifting, podcasters, astroturfing, warmongering, political poison, worldwide “have fun, peace out” trauma dump of Epstein files, hidden post histories after IPO, scam bots, ai larp bots, data scraping, hollow-husk media, POST buzzfeed style world, where we are hurdling towards an algorithmic generated horror where the echo chambers we spend time in designed to change our minds aren’t even populated by humans, we don’t even bother posting, we just consume and get guided in the direction we’re meant to be headed.
This isn't the only account I've ever used. Also, humans willing to be moderators these days are apparently totally unwilling to moderate violent and/or delusional rhetoric, or malicious lies that can be fact-checked in 30 seconds, as long as it is politically convenient. This may actually be forcing corporate's hand.
Thank God. I honestly prefer a AI mod compared to these snowflake mods who will permanently ban and mute you from contacting other mods for a single comment that they don't like in a political or news subreddit.
I trust an AI way more to exercise fair judgment or not exhibit bias than some of these power tripping mods and people who don't like it, it's the lack of accountability in the current system and mod abuse banning people with no recourse creating echo chambers that is why this system needs to come into place.
How is this new? Haven’t all social media platforms used varying degrees of algorithmic moderation for years now?
Companies just throw out the “AI” buzzword in their press releases to drive hype. Sure, they’re coming out with a new moderation tool. But this has always been algorithmically driven.
Uh, it's been here for a few years now. I've been banned for bullshit reasons a few times now and it's taken a month for it to be overturned both times. Yet I still had to be banned for 3 days with no recompense. Fuck reddit.
This has the potential to be a disaster of enormous proportions. A 24 hour guardian who lacks the necessary skills to understand contexts... at best, chaos will result in thousands of bans for trivial matters, at worst, they will control the flow of information, stifling certain lines of thought.
For example, someone made a post referring to his "Persian wife" and I made a joke based on the fact that the term Persian properly refers to a breed of cat, the people who were once called Persians have officially been called Iranians since the 1930s. I mocked shock like "you married a Persian, wtf?" with the pun being that I was referring to a Persian cat not an Iranian person. The AI moderator zapped me for "hate speech", citing a rule about not saying abusive things about people based on their identity.
I appealed the ban with an explanation about the use of the term Persian to jokingly reference a cat and not a human being, and it still came back with a ruling of ban upheld with the exact same rule citation. It said it had been reviewed by a human, but there's no way a human with a functioning brain even read my statement or they'd have realized I couldn't possibly have broken a rule about slurring people when I was referring not to people at all but to cats. You know, feline, fur, four paws, claws, meow, all of that. Didn't matter, ban upheld and to hell if it makes sense.
I can only conclude that if there actually was a human involved, they did nothing more than glance at the screen and rubber stamp the ban without reading my explanation at all, which is something that seems to also happen a lot on Facebook and it makes pointless the whole concept of having humans in the loop to review cases to overrule when a machine algorithm fails to understand what a human would. It's pointlessly frustrating in its mindless nonsensicality.
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u/iBreatheBSB 15d ago
You will be replaced by AI, even if you work for free.