A World of Warcraft player trolls AI article generators with Glorbo
A World of Warcraft player creates a fictional feature called Glorbo specifically to troll artificial intelligence (AI) article generators, but it turns out that a site that uses the technology fell for the hype, and a piece of Glorbo content it produced is even linked from the official World of Warcraft site. The player then uses a Reddit thread to trick the site into producing a piece about the enthusiasm for non-existent Glorbo, and then uses the incident to highlight the need for greater caution when deploying AI in the future.
A Reddit user called ‘CryyWitch’ writes a hype thread on the WoW subforum about a new feature called ‘Glorbo’ that is so exciting, they can’t even describe it. The plan is to write a thread designed to bait a bot into turning it into a post or article, and sure enough, a site called Zleague.gg, which produces AI-generated articles, falls for the bait and turns the thread into a piece about the “enthusiasm” for Glorbo.
The article, which you can see a screenshot of above, mentions the excitement and potential impact of Glorbo, but fails to provide any details about what it actually does. It also includes comments from other players who express concerns about it being overpowered, and accuses Blizzard of being inconsiderate towards non-Glorbo players.
The article also features a debate about the power boost offered by another fictional feature called Klikclac, which appears to be part of a new ‘clac’ series of features that CryyWitch apparently dreamed up to troll the AI generators. The article mentions a “clac debate” and links to another piece of AI-generated content that seems to be part of the series.
The article also includes comments from a “Blizzard developer” about the “clac debate,” and even a comment from CryyWitch congratulating the site on its work. However, after the player declares victory, and the article is taken down, the player adds, “I’m not done with you yet, Glorbo. Next up is the biggest target yet.”
You can still access the article through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, and it’s clear that Glorbo is not a real feature. However, it does raise concerns about the credibility of AI-generated content, and whether readers will be able to tell the difference between real and fake news.
In a tweet, WoW lead designer Jon Chey replies to the incident, saying, “This is definitely a thing that shouldn’t happen and we’ll correct it. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!”
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