Those who know me know I love a good mystery and unsolved complex problems. I love discovering them, pondering them, collecting evidence and most importantly quickly, logically and effectively solving them.
Primarily, I am most drawn to the big mysteries and problems such as: What is really going wrong in America? Why are some people so greedy, power-hungry and evil? How can I rescue my friend from a sociopath? How do we fix American and global politics, media and business? What is the meaning of life? You know, just your everyday basic questions.
However, once in a while I come across an interesting oddity that does not appear to be one of those big questions but catches my eye, such as a glitch in a system or something in a place where it does not belong. Recently, I noticed something suspicious or at least very curious and definitely odd on my Substack.
Several months ago, a guy who focused on AI subscribed to the CNI publication. Although I am not focused on tech, he seemed to have an interesting back story. He was from SE Asia, a single father of young children, traveling the world and seemed to talk tech in a clear and entertaining way, so I subscribed back out of curiosity.
I also immediately became a little suspicious by his commentary on AI, because while it was easy to understand, there was also something that seemed off about it. Yes, he seemed to be writing in perfect American English and sounded intelligent, but in the end, the words were ordered a bit strangely and didn’t really say anything except, “rah rah, AI is great, nothing to worry about, and it will solve everything.”
This seemed to infer two possibilities. Occam’s razor would indicate his words and sentence structures sounded a bit off to my American ears because he grew up in SE Asia, and his AI writings were far more promo than substance, or this was a AI Substack filled with AI promo content pretending to be human.
However, I was soon drawn in by him positively commenting on some of my psychological analysis. About 3 months ago, he shared he had experience surviving narcissists and psychopaths at home and work, and then soon after posted a piece on how AI could be used to detect them to protect people. Although I had several doubts on any near-term viability and the piece had little psychological substance, it was an intriguing concept, so I looked forward to hearing more on how that might work. I think that was the last post I received from him, but since there are always more than enough great things to read, I didn’t really notice.
I understand they are still working out the kinks of the Substack Notes algorithm, or lack thereof, or however it works, but this week I noticed something very off with my “suggested” follow list. Normally, it lists several unfamiliar Substacks to follow, but for at least the last several days, there was a familiar picture on top. It was missing AI guy.
This was indeed strange because as far as I remembered I was subscribed to him so assumed no need to follow. I clicked to see what was going on. I checked his reads and CNI was not there so he must have unsubscribed and I didn’t get an email, which happens from 25-40% of the time, due to a different mystery, ghost in the machine.
At least there was this past connection that made sense to suggest I follow him, but that was only circumstantial so wanted to gather a little more evidence out of curiosity, and to better understanding how Substack works.
I clicked on Subscribers, he didn’t have any. I clicked on Followers, he didn’t have any of those. I checked my reads and shockingly I am subscribed to someone with no subscribers. Weird, huh? So given all this strange evidence, what possible reason would this guy be sitting at the top of my follow “suggestions” list on Notes for what seems like a week or so, and is still there right now? There is no logic to it unless:
A - Substack has an AI that interacts with us as an experiment. While I don’t love the idea, I can certainly understand leadership wanting to test AI on their platform to better understand it, and thus put this “publication” at the top of my following “suggestions” list. If so it must be broken, because having it just sit there for a week accomplishing nothing except looking suspicious makes no sense.
B - Another corporation, organization or entity is testing an AI on Substack. Again, not fond of the idea but I can certainly understand others wanting to test their AI on the platform for harmless, benevolent, commercial or nefarious reasons, and they have figured out how to rig the algorithm to put their “publication” at the top of our follow “suggestions” list.
C - AI guy himself has figured out how to rig the algorithm to put him at the top of our follow “suggestions” list. He would likely be violating terms of use, but I would not mind putting CNI at the top of everyone’s follow list, so you have got to give the man his flowers for finding a “loophole” in the system, if that is what he did.
What other possible explanations could there be for a Substack publication with zero subscribers or followers to be sitting at the top of anyone’s “suggested” follow list for a day, let alone a week? In the end it does not seem to be anything nefarious currently, but it is something to keep an eye on, because clearly there is at least one AI ghost or backdoor in the Substack algorithm machine. Test, glitch or hack? Please let me know because this is one mystery I cannot solve without technical assistance.
I have a buddy of mine who is being tossed about like flotsam. It is confusing but I can forgive Substack it's issues. It's new, relatively, but I love the way it is structured thus far. Knock on wood it stays this cool for some time.
✨Very interesting ! This story makes me remember the FB - Cambridge Analitica file.
Don't you think so, Sam ? ✨