Social bot detection in the age of ChatGPT: Challenges and opportunities

Emilio Ferrara

We present a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities in social bot detection in the context of the rise of sophisticated AI-based chatbots. By examining the state of the art in social bot detection techniques and the more salient real-world application to date, we identify gaps and emerging trends in the field, with a focus on addressing the unique challenges posed by AI-generated conversations and behaviors. We suggest potentially promising opportunities and research directions in social bot detection, including (i) the use of generative agents for synthetic data generation, testing and evaluation; (ii) the need for multimodal and cross-platform detection based on network and behavioral signatures of coordination and influence; (iii) the opportunity to extend bot detection to non-English and low-resource language settings; and, (iv) the room for development of collaborative, federated learning detection models that can help facilitate cooperation between different organizations and platforms while preserving user privacy.