Even some of the real faces that you see online that are promoting a position or promoting

it simply because they want your attention, not because they actually believe that thing.

And so at the end of the day, the thing that does matter is how we decide to interact with it.

Have you ever wondered if the person that you're arguing with in a social media comment section is really a person at all?

Returning to our show is Perry Carpenter, a cybersecurity expert with two decades of experience,

with a focus on creating human-centric defenses against social engineering-based threats.

He came on our show last year for an episode called Artificial Unintelligence, where we discussed

his book, F-A-I-K, a practical guide to living

in a world of deep fakes, disinformation, and AI-generated deceptions. He also has a companion

podcast called The Fake Files and a website, the Deceptionproject.com, that is about uncovering how

truth is distorted by algorithms, by narratives, and by flaws in our own minds. Perry also

fits in well with our show because he's a folklorist and host of another podcast called

Digital Folklore that looks at online culture and the legends it creates.

I asked him to come back this time to explain the phenomenon of social media bots and troll farms,

who might be commanding these faceless humans and robots, what might their goal be, and how do we tell the difference

between a genuine comment or post and one manufactured with a particular objective in mind?

Together we discuss how bots and trolls are changing our political landscape, our emotional

landscape, and the landscape of our future,

and what, if anything, we can do about it. I'm your host, Chelsea Weber-Smith, and this is

American Hysteria. I am so excited. I'm also very excited. I'm also chilled to the bone to welcome Perry Carpenter, who's been on our show before. We did an episode together called Artificial Unintelligence, which according to all of you, you really loved.

Awesome.

So Perry, thank you for being here.

...