From the MediaBerkman blog:
Strike another entry off the list of things robots CAN’T do.
Geeks competed this past winter in Socialbots 2011 to create robots capable of forming relationships on Twitter in a competition organized by Tim Hwang and the Web Ecology Project. The winning bot was the one who could gain the most followers and have the most 140 character conversations with other human beings without intervention.
And the bots actually WORKED.
The real world applications for such technology are endless — non-profits, activist groups, e-commerce, the military — all could benefit from artificial intelligence to infiltrate social networks. And might be already...