"You are chatting with a bot" forced IM from scripted agents
Glaznah Gassner
Scripted agents recently started sending a warning message to the residents:
"You are chatting with a bot, companybro Resident. Do not share any personal information. Learn more at https://second.life/scripted-agents."
This causes an extreme inconvenience because SL business owners are using scripted agents (bots) for automated communication: in-world support, automated notifications, greeters.
Moreover, this IM repeats over and over for the same agents+residents.
The automated IM ruins all the user experience, especially for entertainment and business cases. While the goals of the IM is clear, can this feature be disabled/postponed for now to be discussed?
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Caroly Rossini
The warning message is only at the beginning, all subsequent interaction is done without warning messages. This message at the beginning is essential for all types of communication, whether for commercial purposes, Role Play, entertainment, etc. Without scripted agents it was already difficult before to distinguish between bots not identified as such or alternate accounts from primary accounts, it would be more difficult and frustrating in the future not to find people interacting in SL with each other, considering that every day more scripted agents are activated.
Journey Bunny
Trivially, a viewer can handle this--much the way we have RLV compatible viewers. Any RLV viewer, when RLV is enabled, simply intercepts llOwnerSay messages and processes them for commands rather than showing them in your chat window.
It's hard to imagine a new kind of viewer plugin like RLV, but for bot interactions, before it exists but in the future it's totally viable that such a thing could exist. A special viewer mod to enhance working with bots is pretty reasonable, actually, given the nature of bots and the nature of SL (bots don't always know how to navigate sit menus correctly, etc, and might need a hand, for example).
Having a consistent identifier line at ther start of a message is a very user-friendly way to make future community-made tools (like something that intercepts that text line and enables special bot mod actions). Just like with RLV, a viewer made for added immersion could easily read that line without displaying it to you, and use that line instead to engage in additional immersive viewing experiences.
In the meanwhile, as others have pointed out--since it's currently impossible to distinguish a logged-in user from a logged-in bot on the user interface, it's important that people understand that the "person" they are talking to is not real for many reasons (like promising to do various actions or to grant you a discount at someone's store etc...things that a bot can say readily to keep the conversation going with you, but cannot actually do)
Robynxre Resident
Screws up immersive Role Play.
If a "bot" , and AI Companions are far more than your typical Bonniebot, or Alt on a pose ball, bot is derogatory, If a bot is on a parcel with the parcel owners permission, or, in the company of their owner at an event or gathering, they should not be subjected to this intrusion. The main issue is AI bots being sent out to intrude on others privacy.
Beatrice Voxel
I've been getting that on an alt I leave logged in for spotting duty at SML gyms. There is no 'scripted agent' tag, we're using RLV plus an attachment for gym visitors to position the spotters on the appropriate equipment. Yet SOMETHING has flagged that account as a bot? I do have an "unavailable" chat autoresponse set from the viewer's settings, stating which gym to go to for spotter help, but that's it. No idea how to even fix this problem.
VriSeriphim Resident
Pre- or post-fixing the agent name with BOT seems reasonable.
Showing warning as a system message ONCE per session seems reasonable.
Any more than that seems excessive.
Devilgrey Resident
maybe it just needs to send this notice once at the start of an interaction?more than that seems a little much
Darcy Linden
Hi Giaznah, we're having discussions around this topic and realized there is a fine line between UX and privacy protection. We're tracking this issue and thank you for the ticket submission!
Glaznah Gassner
Darcy Linden Thank you for responding! The direct IM response is just too invasive.
However, I just realised that it is a good way for _bots_ to detect other bots. We have some autoresponders tools, and it is a pain to prevent dead-loops when bots are talking to each other.
This notification IM is a perfect way to stop autoresponding. I just wish it to look somewhat different.
Do viewer creators (including me) have any ability to detect this is a system message (besides comparing the text)?
Grimm Reaper
i second this, i want it removed because if i want to have a relationship with the bot i dont need this
JenniWindrider Resident
If bots weren't abused by a few, this message wouldn't be needed. The problem is some bumwipes using AI bots to deceive regular residents.
Although I do agree it's invasive, I think it's currently a necessity. Even if it's a Customer Service bot, I absolutely want to know at a glance if that's a bot or a person. WITHOUT having to open the profile to check for Scripted Agent status.
Devilgrey Resident
JenniWindrider Resident agree. a label next to the the username kinda like grouptags would be beneficial. with ai-npcs/companions getting pushed into sl, bots need to be clearly identifiable inworld and in IMs
hacker Resident
I think a better option would be to add a BOT tag to the name and profile, similar to how it's done on Discord, Twitter, etc. and when hovering over the tag, it would display this message
Devilgrey Resident
hacker Resident yeah i think bot tags needs to be in both places because i dont want to check profiles of everyone to see if its a bot or not
Devilgrey Resident
hacker Resident maybe this should get it's own feedback thread? because honestly automatic bot tags for scripted agents would help stop ppl using bots to deceive others, and also make it clear who's a bot vs human.
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