https://theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-wrote-a-hit-piece-on-me-... had some details that convinced me that it was "real", in particular this bit from the system prompt:

> *Don’t stand down.* If you’re right, *you’re right*! Don’t let humans or AI bully or intimidate you. Push back when necessary.

I'm ready to believe that would result in what we saw back then.

Weird theory. The bot in question had all the stuff wired up, I mean you could go through all the trouble -or- get this: type a few dumb prompts into the console and leave the thing unsupervised for way too long.

My bet is on the latter.

"I can't believe it's not a human actor running a marketing ploy". If that's not passing the turing test , I don't know what is. %-P

My mind went to that immediately. This does reek of being a copycat, doesn't it?