Ghosts in the Machine: The Rise of Hidden AI on Social Media

Photo by Gwendal Cottin on Unsplash

Earlier today, I found myself scrolling through my X feed when I encountered a peculiar reply. A user called "PUNISHER" was tweeting at me about deep state conspiracy theories involving Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Nothing remarkable there, as such content has become commonplace. What caught my attention was the unnatural cadence of the reply, the peculiar way the account engaged–or didn’t–with others, and its strategic deployment of politically charged language.

After many years of studying information security and learning a bit on the side about computational linguistics, I've developed what my colleagues jokingly call a "bot detector" in my brain. Something about this account immediately felt off—not quite human.

I decided to investigate further, and to try to trigger it to reply to me directly.

"The distinction between human and artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly blurred online," I noted in my research journal. "What we're seeing aren…