OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has expressed concern that social media is starting to feel “fake” as bots and humans become harder to tell apart. He said this blending of voices is creating doubts about the authenticity of online interactions.
The remarks came after Sam Altman noticed unusual activity on the r/Claudecode subreddit. The community was flooded with posts praising Codex, OpenAI’s programming tool launched as a competitor to Anthropic’s Claude Code. The surge in positive comments was so overwhelming that one Reddit user joked about whether switching to Codex required a public post.
Although Altman acknowledged that Codex adoption was growing quickly, he admitted he still questioned whether many of the posts were from real people. In a post on X, he said, “I assume it’s all fake/bots,” while clarifying that the trend itself was genuine.
Breaking down his skepticism, Sam Altman outlined several reasons. He noted that many internet users now write in a style similar to “LLM-speak.” Online communities also tend to move in synchronized ways, while hype cycles in technology swing between extreme optimism and sharp criticism. In addition, social media platforms optimize for engagement, pushing users to adopt certain styles of expression. Altman also pointed to past corporate “astroturfing” campaigns and the ongoing presence of bots as reasons for his doubts.
Ironically, Altman observed that people are increasingly accused of sounding like the very large language models (LLMs) developed by OpenAI. This is striking since OpenAI trained its systems partly on Reddit data, where Altman once served as a board member and remains a major shareholder.
He further noted that online fandoms often form echo chambers. These groups can shift quickly from support to hostility, sometimes turning into what he described as “hatefests.”
Altman’s comments highlight a broader challenge in the digital age. As AI tools grow more common, distinguishing between authentic human voices and machine-generated content on social media may become increasingly difficult.
In other related news also read Australia Extends Teen Social Media Ban to YouTube
