OpenAI CEO Sam Altman: Bots Are Making Social Media Feel Too Fake

Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, recently voiced some worries about how bots and AI-generated stuff are ruining the realness of social media.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), he shared his thoughts after checking out the r/Claudecode subreddit. That's a community full of people talking about coding tools, and lately, it's been flooded with posts raving about OpenAI's new Codex – a service that helps with programming and goes head-to-head with a rival from Anthropic called Claude Code.

Altman couldn't shake the feeling that a lot of those glowing reviews might not be from actual people, even though he knows Codex is really taking off.

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It's weird, Altman said. He finds himself assuming everything online is fake or bot-made. He broke down why he thinks that: For one, regular folks are starting to talk like AI chatbots because they're around them so much. Plus, the super-active online crowd tends to all say the same things, jumping on hype trends that swing wildly from "it's doomed" to "it's amazing." 

Social media platforms push for more likes and shares to keep users hooked, and creators get paid based on engagement, which encourages over-the-top posts. Altman also mentioned that OpenAI has dealt with "astroturfing" – basically, fake grassroots support from competitors or paid posters – so he's extra paranoid about praise.

This isn't just a random gripe; it's a big problem that's getting worse. A report from Imperva last year said more than half of all web traffic comes from non-humans, mostly thanks to AI tools. Even Grok, the AI on X, estimates there are hundreds of millions of bots buzzing around the platform. It's messing with everything from schools (where kids use AI to cheat on homework) to news articles and court cases.

Altman's comments come right after OpenAI's GPT-5 launch hit some snags. Users on Reddit and X complained about its quirky personality and how it gobbles up credits without getting the job done. He even did a Q&A on Reddit to address the backlash, but the fan community there is still grumpy about the updates.

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Some folks online are joking that Altman might be teasing OpenAI's secret social media project to challenge X and Facebook. Rumors about that have been swirling, but nothing's confirmed. Either way, if they build one, good luck keeping bots out – AI is so good at faking human chat now that it's everywhere. The irony? OpenAI helped create this mess. Can social media ever feel genuine again? That's the million-dollar question.