The advancements in AI, machine learning and bot programming has come at a heavy price, and the wepaonisation of this technology is being used on a daily basis to pollute newsfeeds - all of it seemingly circulating from Russia.
From spreading fake news and helping to cloud reality further with the likes of Donald Trump, it's pretty serious stuff. It's been deployed to help Donald Trump win the Presidency, discredit critics of Vladimir Putin - and, apparently, keep Domhnall Gleeson in a job.
No, really.
According to director Rian Johnson and recently revealed in a feature-length documentary on the making of The Last Jedi, there was actually a Russian bot campaign to keep Domhnall Gleeson's character - General Hux, for those that don't know - in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
A scene in the documentary takes place during a production meeting for The Last Jedi and sees Johnson talking about how his Twitter account was flooded with tweets about Gleeson's character, all of which originated from Russia. "There’s a coordinated effort by these Russian accounts. Hundreds of them," said Johnson.
At the time, of course, Johnson was just bemused and slightly perplexed - but now, in hindsight of everything, it makes total sense. Russian bot accounts have a hard-on for authoritarian quasi-fascist regimes, so clearly trying to keep General Hux in Star Wars was on their priority list.
You can search through the hashtag #HuxLive and see some of them from back in 2016 when Johnson was likely receiving the brunt of them - and, of course, people making plenty of jokes now that this has all come to light.
