Today’s Big Story

Chatbait

The chatbots are keeping you talking and it’s taking over the internet

Have you noticed a subtle shift in how the AI chatbots are talking to us? They used to simply answer your questions, right? Thanks ChatGPT! Appreciate the help Grok! But now, they’re like the overly helpful friend who’s always got ideas. It will somehow find ways to continue the conversation and offer ways to go deeper or move you in a different direction. What happened? Did these large language models develop beyond data sets and humane speech and develop … rizz?

Not exactly. They’re simply using more sophisticated tactics to keep customers talking. In some cases, the bots end their messages with prodding follow-up questions. On retail sites, they’ll pop-up and inquire about the product you’re looking at. In other interactions, they proactively message users to coax them into conversation: After The Atlantic’s Lila Shroff started clicking through some profiles of AI bots on Instagram, all of them DM’ed her first to initiate a conversation.

Of course, this approach to engagement sounds familiar. Clickbait is already everywhere online—whether it’s sensationalist headlines (“The Shocking Fact About American History That 95 Percent of Harvard Graduates Get Wrong”) or exaggerated video thumbnails (see: “YouTube face”). Chatbots are now headed in a similar direction. As AI takes over the web, clickbait is giving way to what Schroff dubs “chatbait”.

Some bots appear to be more guilty of chatbait than others. When I ditched ChatGPT and asked Google’s Gemini for headache help, it offered a long list of advice, then paused without asking any follow-ups. Anthropic’s Claude wanted to know whether my headache was tension-related, due to sinus pressure, or something else entirely—hardly a goading question. That’s not to say that these other bots never respond with chatbait. Chatbots tend to be sycophantic: They often flatter and sweet-talk users in a way that encourages people to keep talking. But, in my experience, ChatGPT goes a step further, stringing users along with unrequited offers and provocative questions (especially with the new GPT-5). When I told the chatbot I was thinking of getting a dog, it offered to make a “Dog Match Quiz 🐕✨” to help decide the perfect breed.” (Hey, there are worse ways to spend your time online, right?)

OpenAI tackled this very topic in a recent blog post: “Our goal isn’t to hold your attention,” it reads. Rather than measure success “by time spent or clicks,” OpenAI wants ChatGPT to be “as helpful as possible.” And plenty of people are relying on AI. Some are using it for free therapy, so having a therapist keep following up with questions, could help. Others are using a chatbot in hopes of getting rich—from picking lottery numbers to picking stocks. And it feels like it’s just getting started.

TikTok Deal in the Works

Trump approves deal through executive order, Vance says business valued at $14 billion

Is (one of) our long national nightmares finally coming to an end? On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to keep TikTok available in the U.S. The deal—that Vice President JD Vance said values the business at $14 billion—satisfies the national security requirements but China must still approve the final arrangement. According to the White House, a new joint-venture company will oversee TikTok’s U.S. business, with ByteDance retaining less than a 20% stake.

CNBC reports Trump has been trying to keep the app afloat, repeatedly mentioning how important it was to his presidential victory in November. Billionaire Republican megadonor Jeff Yass is a major ByteDance investor through Susquehanna, and he also owns a stake in the owner of Truth Social, Trump’s social media company.

Officials have said Americans would hold six of seven board seats, with a new algorithm (based on the existing TikTok one) leased from parent company ByteDance and under U.S. control, with American’s personal user data stored in the U.S. also. And while both U.S. and Chinese officials have signaled they are aligned on the deal’s framework, it will still likely require regulatory approvals from both countries. The full list of investors participating in the deal has not yet been released. However, during the signing event, Trump said Chinese leader Xi Jinping had green-lit the deal and expressed confidence that it would be completed.

Former F.B.I. Director Comey Indicted

Trump suggested the attorney general should prosecute Comey and other prominent critics

President Donald Trump’s long-running feud with political enemies escalated again Thursday: the Justice Department filed charges against a persistent rival, while his administration sought to classify some liberal organizations as “domestic terrorist groups”.

The Associated Press reports that just days after Trump publicly demanded action from his attorney general and tapped his former personal lawyer to serve as the top federal prosecutor in Virginia, former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime target of Trump’s ire, was indicted by a grand jury—facing one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice in connection with his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee nearly five years ago.

Comey has denied any wrongdoing. The charges stem from testimony Comey gave on Sept. 30, 2020, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Asked by Sen. Ted Cruz about testimony he gave in 2017 asserting that he did not authorize leaking information regarding the FBI’s investigations into Trump or former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Comey said, “I stand by the testimony.” According to NBC News, Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe, said that Comey authorized him to leak information to the press, according to a 2018 Justice Department inspector general’s report. But the report also found that McCabe made multiple false or misleading statements. The statute of limitations for the charges was set to expire Tuesday. Comey could face a maximum of five years in prison if convicted.

A Weekend Pairing

‘Alice in Borderland’ + a Black Manhattan Cocktail

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