Elon Musk’s X has removed 42,000 chatbot accounts in an AI spam crackdown aimed at eliminating automated replies and fake engagement on the social media platform. While announcing the step, Nikita Bier, Head of Product of X said that these accounts automates replies using chatbots and that this aligns with X's core value of providing an authentic pulse on humanity.
“X's core value is providing an authentic pulse on humanity -- and using AI to programmatically engage with users without a human in the loop runs counter to our mission,” he wrote on X.
He defined this cleanup as a mission to restore the platform, emphasizing that X aims to provide a "genuine human pulse," and that AI responses undermine this goal.
X spent 24 hours posting live updates on its anti-chatbot campaign, offering a look at how AI-generated spam evolves and how X counters it.
The users praised this significant move while suggesting crowdsourcing as a potential way to flag them more quickly. Some urged the other social media platforms to take similar steps to combat automated engagement.
The action targets fully automated engagement, not AI-assisted posts.
Users can still use AI to help write posts. What is banned is programmatic reply-bots operating without human oversight.
