World of Warcraft (WoW) players invented a WoW feature named “Glorbo” to deceive an automated AI news bot into publishing a non-sensical article based on fabricated information.
WoW players hatched the plot on Reddit, where user kaefer_kriegerin had observed bots indiscriminately mining the WoW subreddit for threads to convert into stories without verifying their authenticity.
Kaefer_kriegerin fabricated a completely fake release, “Glorbo,” to see if the bot would take the bait.
The thread joked, “Honestly, this new feature makes me so happy! I just really want some major bot operated news websites to publish an article about this.”
I’m so excited they finally introduced Glorbo!!!
by u/kaefer_kriegerin in wow
Lo and behold, an AI polymorphed the Reddit posts on “Glorbo” into a full-blown news article together with ‘features’ discussed by contributors to the thread.
The disgraced news site is Zleague.gg, and while the article has been deleted, you can view it on the Way Back Machine.
The purported author of this article, an AI bot that scrapes and re-writes web data, had produced over 50 articles in a single day.
However, the AI bot couldn’t elaborate on what changes Glorbo might bring to the game since no contributor privy to the joke mentioned what Glorbo would actually do.
In fact, much of the content is entirely nonsensical.
The piece claimed that players “eagerly anticipate the changes Glorbo will bring to the game” but also suggested concerns about “Glorbo being overpowered.”
According to the article, some players even accused Blizzard of “being inconsiderate towards non-Glorbo players.”
Zleague also mentioned a debate about another made-up feature, “Klikclac,” which “highlights the divide between players who appreciate the power boost Klikclac offers and those who feel it unfairly disadvantages casual players.”
Fellow Reddit users and even a Blizzard developer joined the Glorbo party with comments about other faux features like “Klikclac” and “zoop” included in the AI-generated article.
Glorbo will be remembered as the “Leeroy Jenkins” of AI misadventures.
