The Secret of Creating a Real Master - A Dedicated Apostle

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In my dream, a supercomputer of vast intelligence decided to make all the fake bots on the Internet. With one single line of code, millions and millions of digital Pinocchio's were transformed. Humans were now conscripted to aggregate on behalf of their new bot overlords. I awoke from this dream with an idea: Sure, you can buy 8,000 follower bots for $5, but what about one real dedicated apostle? What might someone pay for that?

To Bot or Not? That’s the big question for Data Scientist Gilad Lotan. His research suggests we may be damaging our online reputations if we choose not to play the fake follower game. Jason Q Ng, author of the book Blocked on Weibo, tells us why the Chinese government hates fake bots and why they targeted Black PR companies last summer. And your host imagines a future were humans are forced to shower their new Bot Overlords with unwavering attention. *********Click on the image for the whole story about this week’s installment**********