An AI blog comment?

I suspect that I’ve received my first AI-generated spam comment, left on a post about two ways to know that you’re living in a small town. Here’s the post, from August 8, 2018, with a later addition:

One way to know you’re living in a small town: you recognize your neighbor’s little sports car in a TV commercial for a local auto shop.

*

August 14: Our neighbor knows about the commercial. But the car isn’t his. Someone else in town has the same little sports car, and my neighbor knows who. Further proof that I’m living in a small town.

And here’s the comment:

It’s funny how small towns make everything feel personal — even spotting a neighbor’s sports car in a local commercial! Just like keeping an eye on the details in town, it’s important to stay on top of your car’s health. For quick help with a failing battery, services like [link redacted] can get you back on the road without stress.

The link goes to a battery company in Dubai. As with the AI-generated response to my restaurant review, the comment makes too much use of what I wrote. It’s wildly inauthentic.

What’s the point of leaving such comments? A Dubaian looking for a new battery is not going to find one by finding my post. The idea (a feeble idea, to my mind) is to increase a website’s online presence via links. Alas, the people and, now, the machines dropping spam comments never seem to notice that Orange Crate Art uses comment moderation. Spam comments never show up online, at least not unless I want to make something of one in a new post.

Related reading
All OCA AI posts (Pinboard)