// social media spam

Source: Ars Technica

AI-powered bots are now operating at scale as direct-to-consumer marketing tools, bypassing traditional ad infrastructure to carpet-bomb social platforms with low-effort content designed purely for engagement metrics. This marks a shift from AI as backend optimization to AI as an autonomous actor in the attention economy. With minimal financial barrier to entry, any marketer can deploy legions of personas to manufacture viral moments. The result is accelerating platform degradation and forcing consumers to distrust not just ads, but the authenticity of the content stream itself.