Large-Scale Communication is More Complex and Unpredictable with Automated Bots

Abstract

Abstract Automated communication bots follow deterministic local rules that either respond to programmed instructions or learned patterns. On the microlevel, their automated and reactive behavior makes certain parts of the communication dynamic more predictable. Studying communicative turns in the editing history of Wikipedia, we find that on the macrolevel, the overall emergent communication process becomes both more complex and less predictable. The increased presence of bots is the main explanatory variable for these seemingly contradictory tendencies. In short, individuals introduce bots to make communication more simple and predictable but end up with a large-scale dynamic that is more complex and more uncertain. We explain our results with the information processing nature of complex systems. The article also serves as a showcase for the use of information-theoretic measures from dynamical systems theory to assess changes in communication dynamics provoked by algorithms.

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