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Sometimes when you're browsing your social media feed, you might find an account or a post that just seems...off.
当你浏览社交媒体时，你有时可能会发现账户或帖子似乎...离线
Maybe it sounds like a janky product endorsement, or maybe the wording seems kinda funny.
也许这听起来像是产品广告，或者说法有点好笑。
Quite often, these are bots — bits of computer code designed to operate an account and maybe masquerade as a real person.
通常情况下，这些都是机器人——设计用来操作账户的计算机代码，可能伪装成真人的样子。
They're all over the place, especially on sites like Twitter,
这些机器人无处不在，尤其是在像Twitter这样的网站，
where some have estimated up to 15% of active accounts are actually bots.
一些人估计，多达15%的活跃账户实际上是机器人。
You've probably heard they're shaping our online experience and could even have real-world consequences— but how true is that?
你可能听说机器人正在塑造我们的网络体验，甚至可能会对现实世界产生影响——但这是真的吗?
And why do we fall for them in the first place? It turns out that for something so rooted in computer science,
为什么我们一开始就迷恋上了机器人呢？事实证明，这有计算机科学根据的，
the success of bots has a lot to do with, well, psychology.
机器人的成功与心理有很大关系。
To understand the influence of Twitter bots, it helps to look at the world of artificial intelligence, or AI.
要了解Twitter机器人的影响，我们可以看看人工智能世界。
For decades, researchers in this field have been trying to convince people their computer programs are actually other humans.
几十年来，这一领域的研究人员一直试图让人们相信，他们的电脑程序实际上是其他人。
A common benchmark of how human-like an AI is called the Turing test.
我们把与人相似的人工智能的常见基准叫做图灵测试。
In it, someone interacts with a computer and a person just through text, and they have to see if they can tell the difference.
在这个游戏中，有人通过文字与电脑、人互动，看自己能否分辨出其中的区别。
So far, we're not really to the point of AIs reliably passing.
到目前为止，人工智能可靠传递的程度还没有实现。
Over on the main SciShow channel, we talked a bit about why this is so difficult from a computer science standpoint,
在心理科学秀主频道，我们从计算机科学的角度讨论了为什么这个程度很难实现
and we'll link to that video at the end of this one.
本节目最后我们会给出视频链接。
But even though there's no such thing as a perfect AI, some programs have done relatively well.
但即使没有完美的人工智能，一些程序也做得相当不错。
And obviously, tons of people mistake Twitter bots for humans all the time.
很明显，许多人一直把Twitter机器人当成人类。
In competitions and otherwise, the most successful programs seem to trick us by managing our expectations.
在竞争以及其他方面，最成功的项目似乎通过把控人类的期望来对欺骗我们。
In other words, they're designed to look like people we wouldn't expect to be perfect linguists.
换句话说，人们把Twitter机器人设计成我们不会期待的完美语言学家的样子。
For example, one successful early bot posed as a seven-year-old child,
例如，早期成功的机器人伪装成7岁的孩子，
so spelling and grammar mistakes seemed normal.
所以存在拼写和语法错误似乎很正常。
And in 2014, one of the best AI at a competition at the University of Reading was supposed to be a Ukrainian teenager.
2014年，在雷丁大学的一场竞赛中，最优秀的人工智能之一应该是一名乌克兰少年。
That way, it got some slack when it didn't get things like pop culture references.
这样一来，当没有流行文化参考时，步伐就会有些缓慢。
Managing expectations works in competitions, and it can explain why Twitter bots fool us, too.
管理期望在竞争中有效，这可以解释为什么Twitter机器人也愚弄了我们。
Many bots, especially the ones that don't self-identify,
很多机器人，尤其是那些不会自我识别的机器人，
rely on the fact that you probably aren't looking for them when you go online.
会依靠这样的一种事实，当你上网的时候，你可能不会去寻找机器人。
After all, if you notice tweets with bad grammar or weird hashtags — well, that's just Twitter.
毕竟，如果你注意到微博的语法很糟糕或者标签很奇怪——好吧，那就是Twitter。
So the bots slip under your radar. But that's not the only psychological trick in their toolbox.
所以这些机器人在你的雷达下逃过了一劫，但这并不是他们唯一的心理技巧
To pick up human followers, many accounts— especially advertising bots — take advantage
为了吸引粉丝，许多账户——尤其是广告机器人——利用了
of another well-studied phenomenon in social psychology: the norm of reciprocity.
社会心理学中另一个广泛研究的现象：互惠标准。
This says that if someone does something nice to you,
就是说如果有人对你做了好事，
you tend to be a little motivated to do something nice in return.
作为回报，你往往会做一些好事。
So, if you get a new follower,
如果你有了新追随者，
you might follow them back without thinking too hard about whether they're a person or a program.
你可能会跟随它们，而不去想它是人还是程序。
Then, the bot can just wait until it has a few thousand followers
然后，机器人会等待，直至几千名追随者进入
— and you've forgotten about it — to start spamming your feed.
——你已经忘记了——开始发垃圾信息。
And it seems to work. Researchers have found that, although people don't tend to reply to these tweets directly,
这似乎很有效。研究人员发现，尽管人们不会直接回复这些推文，
they do regularly retweet them and spread their messages.
他们会定期转发和传播信息。
This could be because they're posting something noteworthy, or just because they targeted potentially interested users.
这可能是因为他们发布了一些值得关注的东西，或者仅仅是因为他们瞄准了潜在的感兴趣用户。
Generally, this isn't a big issue. Whether or not you recognize them for what they are,
一般来说，这个问题不大。不论你是否认识到问题的本质，
a lot of bots just exist to serve you ads or share animal pictures.
很多机器人只是为了给你提供广告或者分享动物图片。
But there are also more worrisome programs you might've heard about,
但你可能听说过一些更加令人担忧的项目，
which seem to be trying to spread misinformation and influence politics.
他们似乎在试图传播错误信息并影响政治。
And those are trickier to understand. Despite concerns, it's really hard to measure if these bots have offline consequences —
这些问题更难理解。尽管存在担忧，但很难衡量这些机器人是否会产生离线后果——
like if they actually sway anyone's vote. It's a topic of active research and debate.
就像他们真的影响了任何人的投票一样。这是一个研究和辩论的热门话题。
Either way, all that political spam probably isn't a good thing,
不管怎样，所有这些政治垃圾邮件可能都不是好事，
and many social networks like Twitter are working hard to keep bots from skewing the political climate in one direction.
Twitter等许多社交网络都在努力阻止机器人扭曲政治方向。
Still, like we said earlier, bots aren't all bad news.
不过，就像之前说的，机器人并不都是坏事。
Some share self-care tips, others help with customer service, and some share legitimately useful information.
一些人分享自我照顾的技巧，一些人协助客户服务，一些人分享合法的有用信息。
Some new ones can even help — at least, to a degree — with mental illness.
一些新的治疗方法甚至可以帮助——至少在一定程度上——治疗精神疾病。
In 2017, some psychologists followed in the footsteps of one of the very first chatbots: ELIZA.
2017年，一些心理学家追随了最早的聊天机器人之一——伊丽莎（ELIZA）的脚步。
This bot was designed to be a bit of a parody of the therapists who would just say
伊丽莎（ELIZA）被设计成治疗师的样子，他们只会说
That's interesting... tell me more.
这很有趣…告诉我更多！
Armed with new research about cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, this team took ELIZA a step further.
有了认知行为疗法的新研究，这个研究小组进一步研究了伊丽莎（ELIZA）。
They designed a new chatbot named Woebot designed to walk users through some of CBT's tools and strategies.
他们设计了一款名为Woebot的新型聊天机器人，旨在引导用户了解认知行为疗法的一些工具和策略。
Generally, CBT is a kind of therapy that
一般来说，认知行为疗法是一种治疗方法，
focuses on changing your emotions and feelings through challenging your patterns of thoughts and behavior.
它通过挑战人的思维和行为模式来改变人的情绪和感受。
But you also need, like, a person to be the therapist. Or apparently… a chatbot.
但你也需要人来做治疗师，或者显然…聊天机器人。
In a randomized control trial of 58 people,
在58人的随机对照试验中，
the team found that those who interacted with Woebot for two weeks
研究小组发现，与对照组相比，那些与Woebot互动两周的参与者
reported a significant reduction in depression symptoms on a standardized self-report scale compared to a control group.
在标准化自我报告量表上的抑郁症状明显减轻。
Even though they all knew it was... just a robot.
尽管他们都知道那是…只是一个机器人。
The conversation probably didn't go exactly like it would with a human therapist,
此次谈话可能和人类治疗师的谈话不太一样，
but it looks like it was close enough to be effective. So even though some can cause problems,
但看起来足够接近于有效。所以即使有些会出现问题，
bots aren't all bad, and we're moving in some interesting and helpful new directions with them.
机器人也不全是坏事，我们正朝着一些有趣而有益的新方向前进。
If you really don't want to be fooled by a bot,
如果你真的不想被机器人愚弄，
you can look out for accounts that use repetitive wording and post too many links or hashtags.
你可以寻找重复措辞，发布许多链接或标签的账户。
But a lot of more sophisticated ones do go undetected,
但是更多更复杂的还没有发现，
and even researchers have a hard time telling the difference.
甚至研究人员也很难分辨出其中的区别。
So chances are… you're probably interacting with some bots from time to time online, whether you want to or not.
所以，不管你是否愿意，你都有可能时不时地与一些机器人进行在线互动。
But as long as you keep in mind some of the ways they can trick you into engaging with them,
但只要你记住了它们的一些招数，你就能和机器人交往，
you can pick the ones you want to interact with. And that's definitely a start.
你可以选择你想要与之互动的对象，这当然只是一个开始。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢收看本期心理科学秀！
If you'd like to learn more about how Twitter bots work and why it's so hard to program them to sound like humans
如果你想了解更多关于Twitter机器人如何工作以及为什么把机器人设计成人的思维模式如此艰难
you can watch the first part of this episode over on the main SciShow channel!
你可以在心理科学秀主频道观看本集的第一部分!
You can find it at youtube.com/scishow.
可以访问youtube.com/scishow。
