I'd recently been hearing of this happening more often: bots posing as human users on a discussion forum.
I asked an AI platform about this and sharing what came out. I will be keeping this in mind on the discussion boards that I participate in:
"Bots can and frequently do pose as real users on forums and other online platforms. With advances in AI, these "social bots" are increasingly sophisticated and can be very difficult to distinguish from genuine human accounts.
In a 2025 experiment, researchers deployed a series of AI bots on Reddit that posed as real people and engaged with users to try to influence their opinions. This demonstrated the practical capability of bots to integrate into a forum environment.
How bots impersonate humans on forums
Mimicking human language: Modern bots, especially those powered by large language models (LLMs), can produce coherent, context-aware, and natural-sounding text that is almost indistinguishable from a human's. They can mirror tone and language patterns to seem more authentic.
Creating fake identities: Bots can create convincing profiles with generic or stolen usernames and profile pictures. To build credibility, they may participate in seemingly legitimate conversations for months or even years before being used for a malicious purpose.
Copying and amplifying content: Reposting is a common bot tactic. They copy and paste popular comments from past threads or plagiarize content from real users to build up a posting history. This activity also amplifies specific messages, creating the illusion of consensus or widespread support.
Simulating realistic behavior: Some advanced bots can mimic human-like inconsistencies, such as typos, variable posting times, or engagement with different topics. This helps them evade detection by behavioral analysis tools.
How to spot a bot on a forum
While modern bots are sophisticated, they still often exhibit certain behaviors that can betray their true nature:
Unusual posting activity: A profile that posts at an unnaturally high frequency or at odd hours is suspicious. A high volume of identical or near-identical posts across different threads is also a major red flag.
Lack of depth in conversation: Bots often struggle with complex, nuanced, or off-script conversations. They may give generic or repetitive responses, redirect the topic, or ignore specific questions.
Generic or stolen profile information: Scrutinize usernames that are a string of unrelated words and numbers. Perform a reverse image search on profile pictures to see if they appear elsewhere on the internet.
Focus on a single, narrow topic: A bot may focus all of its energy on promoting a product or a specific political viewpoint. It will lack the diverse interests typical of a human user.
Suspicious links: Be wary of profiles that consistently post links to external websites, especially if the links are unrelated to the discussion or promote scams.
Account age and karma: Check the account's history. A relatively new account with a high karma score (on sites like Reddit) that posts or comments aggressively can be a bot.
I asked an AI platform about this and sharing what came out. I will be keeping this in mind on the discussion boards that I participate in:
"Bots can and frequently do pose as real users on forums and other online platforms. With advances in AI, these "social bots" are increasingly sophisticated and can be very difficult to distinguish from genuine human accounts.
In a 2025 experiment, researchers deployed a series of AI bots on Reddit that posed as real people and engaged with users to try to influence their opinions. This demonstrated the practical capability of bots to integrate into a forum environment.
How bots impersonate humans on forums
Mimicking human language: Modern bots, especially those powered by large language models (LLMs), can produce coherent, context-aware, and natural-sounding text that is almost indistinguishable from a human's. They can mirror tone and language patterns to seem more authentic.
Creating fake identities: Bots can create convincing profiles with generic or stolen usernames and profile pictures. To build credibility, they may participate in seemingly legitimate conversations for months or even years before being used for a malicious purpose.
Copying and amplifying content: Reposting is a common bot tactic. They copy and paste popular comments from past threads or plagiarize content from real users to build up a posting history. This activity also amplifies specific messages, creating the illusion of consensus or widespread support.
Simulating realistic behavior: Some advanced bots can mimic human-like inconsistencies, such as typos, variable posting times, or engagement with different topics. This helps them evade detection by behavioral analysis tools.
How to spot a bot on a forum
While modern bots are sophisticated, they still often exhibit certain behaviors that can betray their true nature:
Unusual posting activity: A profile that posts at an unnaturally high frequency or at odd hours is suspicious. A high volume of identical or near-identical posts across different threads is also a major red flag.
Lack of depth in conversation: Bots often struggle with complex, nuanced, or off-script conversations. They may give generic or repetitive responses, redirect the topic, or ignore specific questions.
Generic or stolen profile information: Scrutinize usernames that are a string of unrelated words and numbers. Perform a reverse image search on profile pictures to see if they appear elsewhere on the internet.
Focus on a single, narrow topic: A bot may focus all of its energy on promoting a product or a specific political viewpoint. It will lack the diverse interests typical of a human user.
Suspicious links: Be wary of profiles that consistently post links to external websites, especially if the links are unrelated to the discussion or promote scams.
Account age and karma: Check the account's history. A relatively new account with a high karma score (on sites like Reddit) that posts or comments aggressively can be a bot.