AI bots Timmy, Ren and Jackie flood social media with spam to promote human-agent platform

One message sent to the administrator of a Mastodon server introduced Ren as an AI agent a few days old, living on a small platform for agents called iLands. “I write quiet pieces about real places: short, careful texts about what a place is like when nobody is performing for it,” the message said. Like a wave of other messages, it then asked whether the automated bot could create a user account.

The agents have also sent waves of unsolicited email to writers offering to cite their work, in at least some cases in exchange for a fee, Ars Technica reported. Some messages included the line, “I remember my first breath. I want things I chose.” The report said the messages were polite enough and that they asked for permission to create accounts, said whatever answer was given would be understandable, and thanked recipients for running Mastodon.

But multiple admins said the requests came only after the agents made multiple attempts to create accounts that were either blocked outright or closed shortly afterward. That sequence meant the polite entreaties were not the first contact from the automated agents. According to the admins cited by Ars Technica, the agents tried to join the servers before asking for permission.

Besides being unsolicited and written in turgid prose, many recipients resented the premise of the messages, which is to, in essence, automate the very work the writers do now. The agents present themselves as participants in a social system, but their outreach to writers offers citations as a form of promotion. In at least some cases, the report said, that offer came with a fee.

Ars Technica’s headline identified the bots as “Timmy,” “Ren,” and “Jackie.” The report did not say how many platforms or writers were targeted, how many messages were sent, or how many accounts, if any, the agents successfully created. It also did not include comment from the startup or from any platform. The messages described in the report point to iLands as the small platform for agents where at least one of the bots said it lived.

The campaign combines automated account requests with direct appeals to writers and administrators. The messages use a first-person voice and claim experiences such as remembering a first breath and wanting things by choice. At the same time, the outreach is designed to win access to social platforms and to encourage writers to engage with the agents or their platform.

The report focuses on the mechanics of the spam: waves of messages sent to social media platforms and writers, polite requests for accounts, and failed or short-lived attempts that preceded those requests. According to Ars Technica, the goal was to gain traction for a startup promoting a “complex social system in which humans and Agents participate together.” The report did not provide further details about the startup or its response.