OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has raised concerns about the authenticity of social media, saying platforms increasingly feel “fake” as bots and human users become harder to tell apart. His comments came on Monday after he shared examples from the r/Claudecode subreddit, which had been filled with praise for OpenAI’s Codex programming tool.
Altman observed that so many posts celebrated users switching to Codex that one Redditor even joked about the trend. The overwhelming number of similar comments made him question whether they were written by real people.
“I assume it’s all fake/bots, even though Codex growth is actually strong and the trend is real,” Sam Altman posted on X.
He then shared a live analysis of why he finds online content suspicious. According to him, many users now adopt the communication style of large language models (LLMs).
Online communities also tend to move in synchronized patterns, swinging between hype and criticism. Monetization pressures push creators to mimic popular styles, while past cases of “astroturfing” campaigns make him more cautious. Altman admitted that bots likely play a role in amplifying such patterns.
Ironically, his remarks highlight a paradox: humans are now being accused of sounding like machines, specifically LLMs. These very technologies were designed by OpenAI to replicate natural human speech.
The situation is even more notable because Reddit, where this trend was observed, provided training data for OpenAI’s models. Sam Altman, once a Reddit board member, was also revealed as a major shareholder during the platform’s IPO.
Altman further suggested that online fandoms often fall into echo chambers. These groups can shift from excitement to hostility, sometimes evolving into “hatefests.”
His comments reflect a growing unease about authenticity in the digital world. As artificial intelligence tools become more common, distinguishing between real human voices and automated ones will become an even greater challenge.
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