The digital world is increasingly saturated with content crafted by AI, with Reddit standing as one of the last domains where people can genuinely engage with fellow humans.

Regrettably, a fresh marketing automation enterprise named Astral aims to alter that by introducing LinkedIn-level promotional dross to the forum platform. The brainchild behind the startup, Savannah Feder, shared a clip on X on Thursday illustrating how her application, utilizing AI agents within a web browser, can peruse Reddit and autonomously generate comments endorsing whatever a marketer is aiming to promote.

Similar to recent demonstrations of computer-use agents from Anthropic and Google, Astral can commandeer a local browser and perform tasks by initially taking snapshots of a page and interpreting them using AI to determine subsequent actions based on an input, eventually directing commands to the cursor.

“Observe how Astral identifies the precise locations to click,” Feder remarks as the agent begins accessing Reddit. “It’s genuinely captivating to witness its navigation of the site as a person would.” The video progresses to illustrate the bot maneuvering to the subreddit /r/productmanagement, searching for discussions about “user research,” and then “crafting a response that endorses the product while avoiding an overtly sales-oriented tone.”

The aspiration for these bots is to assist grandma in independently navigating her computer, not to generate promotional automation bots to inundate social channels. Certainly, this illuminates the reason so many folks harbor resentment towards AI: It is being utilized by the most disagreeable individuals you are acquainted with.

Introducing Astral – an AI marketer tirelessly working to expand your startup every day.

Astral explores sites, produces content, and executes marketing across social platforms.

Observe Astral fully automate Reddit live: pic.twitter.com/XbpKt0lZqd

— Savannah (@SavannahFeder) January 9, 2025

This should further confirm that AI is on the verge of ushering in an ocean of uniform mediocrity and dull material as far as one can perceive. Anyone with ample experience on LinkedIn or X has encountered generic, lifeless updates that are evidently machine-generated, and now an enthusiast has developed a tool to introduce this to Reddit. Conceiving pride in such an achievement resembles being proud of defiling someone’s swimming pool.

What is possibly just as dispiriting is that the individuals developing tools akin to Astral genuinely perceive AI and humans as interchangeable entities, and envision machines far surpassing human capabilities.

Amazingly, when someone posed a question to Feder about why Astral utilizes an AI agent operating in a local browser rather than a Reddit API, she clarifies it is due to the restrictions on automated task execution via APIs imposed by Reddit and other social networks. This restriction exists for a reason: it is spam-laden and bothersome. She even enthusiastically elaborates to another individual on how the bot successfully bypasses CAPTCHAs.

Reddit co-creator Alexis Ohanian responded to the post with a GIF of Patrick from SpongeBob shedding tears.

It will be intriguing to observe how platforms such as Reddit develop anti-bot strategies to mitigate the influx of drivel.