If you're the sort of person who likes to get their news about pandemics from automated award-winning zombie enthusiasts, these are the bots for you. #MondayMotivation
cc: @ZellaQuixote
cc: @ZellaQuixote
We found 28 bots with weirdly similar (and likely automatically generated) profile biographies, all automated via dlvr(dot)it and tweeting about coronavirus. The first 16 were created over several months in 2019; the remaining 12 were all made on Feb 27, 2020.
What do these bots tweet about? #Coronavirus and #bitcoin, mostly, with news articles on other topics sprinkled in here and there for good measure.
The first 16 accounts' profile pics have the curious property that the eyes, nose, and mouth are in the exact same spot on every picture, indicative that they were generated via an AI such as thispersondoesnotexist.com. The more recent 12 use real photos stolen from random websites.
Here's an animated demonstration of the similarity between the 16 AI-generated profile pics used by this botnet, beginning with one image and slowing blending in the rest. The majority of the image is blurry by the end, but the eyes, nose, and mouth remain clear.
(previous thread on AI face generation)
