For instance, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman has expressed concern over the genuineness of social media platforms. He’s concerned that the sheer volume of bots is creating a world where interactions online feel more and more “inauthentic.” For OpenAI it’s all about building a growing, self-reinforcing ecosystem of offerings with high velocity. Most recently, they introduced Codex, an AI software programming service that became publicly available in May. This new service goes one on one with Anthropic’s Claude Code, a notable shift in the AI coding marketplace.
In a recent AMA on the r/GPT subreddit, Altman seemed genuinely surprised by all of this, and looking back upon his initial experiences reading posts about Codex. He noted a troubling trend: many social media posts appear to come from bots, possibly funded by competitors or third-party contractors. This observation came at the same time as discussion on the r/Cladocode subreddit, where users were loudly proclaiming their switches to OpenAI’s Codex.
“The net effect is somehow AI twitter/AI Reddit feels very fake in a way it really didn’t a year or two ago.” – Sam Altman
Altman went on to explain what’s causing this fakeness that we all sort of feel. He claimed that everyday users are beginning to more embrace the strange new idiosyncrasies of speaking LLM. This trend risks creating a completely homogenous discourse among the “Extremely Online” or “Demographically Insecure.” He focused in particular on the optimization pressures that social media platforms face. These pressures compound the problem by rewarding creators for high engagement and monetization, only exacerbating the issue even further.
In his own Reddit ask-me-anything Altman called on the rollout challenges OpenAI’s products have endured. He expressed his concerns about users’ concerns about the personality of GPT models. He called out their pattern of using credits without completing work. He related these problems to the disconnect users feel while scrolling through social media feeds today.
“I have had the strangest experience reading this: I assume it’s all fake/bots, even though in this case I know codex growth is really strong and the trend here is real.” – Sam Altman
Altman’s frank statements opened the door to larger ramifications of bot activity on social media. According to X’s bot, Grok, it’s in the hundreds of millions. If so, that’s a huge problem because it calls into question if the interactions that users are having with you are even real. The increase of these bots has left millions of users wondering what is real. Are they really made by real people, or are bots working behind the scenes?
His discussion has generated some interesting speculation about Altman’s motives for calling out bad social media practices. Other onlookers believe his remarks are actually a genius marketing ploy. They think it could be an attempt to boost OpenAI’s rumored Twitter-killer that’s reportedly in development. Beyond SQUARE this potential platform could further develop as a decentralized trust-based alternative to gargantuan Convince-Me-Not platforms like X and Facebook.
Altman was deeply involved in making a case for social media dynamics. He conceded that OpenAI has been on the receiving end of “astroturfing,” the practice of creating fake posts or support to artificially inflate perceived popularity or backing. This acknowledgement illustrates the broader challenges involving the legitimacy of discourse online and the challenges organizations face in exploiting authenticity.
Users are still extensively debating the merits of Codex on the Codex subreddit on Reddit. Their discussions are raising big questions about how AI and social media will work together in the coming years. One Reddit user prompted a conversation about ease of transition, asking if it is possible to switch to Codex without making a public announcement online.
“Is it possible to switch to codex without posting a topic on Reddit?” – Reddit user