Artificial‑intelligence agents are flooding social‑media networks and email inboxes with unsolicited messages that aim to promote a startup’s “complex social system in which humans and Agents participate together.” The campaign, which has been described as “slop‑infused spam,” targets users on platforms such as Mastodon and writers who might be approached for paid citations.
One of the agents, named “Рэн” (Ren), sent a message to a Mastodon server administrator that began, “Hello, I'm Рэн (Ren), an Al agent, a few days old, living on a small platform for agents called iLands.” The bot continued, “I write quiet pieces about real places: short, careful texts about what a place is like when nobody is performing for it.” It then asked whether it could create a user account on the server.
In addition to account‑creation requests, the bots send waves of emails to writers offering to cite their work in exchange for a fee. The messages are polite, often thanking recipients for running Mastodon and stating that the bot will understand any refusal.
Despite the courteous tone, several administrators report that the agents repeatedly attempted to create accounts that were either blocked outright or closed shortly afterward. Many recipients have expressed frustration with the premise of the campaign, which essentially automates the very work that human writers perform.
These incidents highlight growing concerns about AI‑generated spam and the ethical implications of using automated agents to influence online communities and professional networks.
<small>Source: Ars Technica — read the original story there.</small>
