Sam Altman Raises Concerns Over AI-Generated Social Media Posts as Bots Swarm Reddit

In a revelation on Monday, Sam Altman, an avid AI advocate and shareholder in Reddit, expressed concern over the increasing difficulty in distinguishing between human-authored posts and those generated by bots on social media platforms. This observation was sparked during his interaction with content from the r/Claudecode subreddit, which has been flooded with announcements of users transitioning to OpenAI’s Codex.

Launched in May, Codex is a software programming service designed to emulate Anthropic’s Claude Code. The influx of posts on Reddit made Altman question the authenticity of these announcements, stating, “I have had the strangest experience reading this: I assume it’s all fake/bots, even though in this case I know codex growth is really strong and the trend here is real.”

Delving deeper into his reasoning, Altman noted several factors contributing to this phenomenon. He observed that real users may have adopted quirks associated with Large Language Models (LLMs), as these models were designed to mimic human communication. The ubiquity of online communities and the hype cycle’s tendency toward extremism also play significant roles, he suggested.

Altman’s concerns about potential astroturfing in the pro-OpenAI posts echoed his observation that OpenAI itself had been a target of such practices. Astroturfing typically involves paid posts or comments from individuals or bots employed by competitors or third-party contractors to create a false narrative, offering the perpetrator plausible deniability.

In response to the release of GPT 5.0, OpenAI subreddits were inundated with criticism and complaints about various aspects of the new model, including its personality and credit usage. This backlash led Altman to question whether these negative responses might also be driven by bots or scripted accounts.

Reflecting on the evolution of AI-driven content, Altman noted a shift in the authenticity of AI-dominated platforms like Twitter and Reddit. “The net effect is somehow AI twitter/AI Reddit feels very fake in a way it really didn’t a year or two ago.”

While it remains unclear how many posts on social media are generated by bots, data security company Imperva estimated that over half of all internet traffic in 2024 was non-human, primarily due to LLMs. With rumors of OpenAI exploring the development of a social media platform, questions arise about its potential approach to managing bot activity and ensuring user authenticity.