The bot wars have begun, at least on Wikipedia. As silly as it may sound, autonomous software bots patrol places like Wikipedia ideally fixing mistakes. One bot’s fix is another bot’s mistake to correct, and a perpetual cycle is created. While that sounds innocuous, it hints at a scenario that has been speculated about, but rarely seen in the real world. I n addition to bots fighting humans, they may also fight themselves. Within Wikipedia that is a nuisance, but as bots are given more power and autonomy, we may begin to witness conflicts that are more than copy and paste battles. In some cases, the only resolution on Wikipedia has been to disable one of the bots for a while. Imagine similar conflicts between autonomous cars and trucks, or competing delivery drones, or the scariest scenario of military clashes. While the bots may do battle, we humans may experience collateral damage in infrastructure at the least. Unfortunately, bots are being deployed without adequate controls, so the trend should continue and probably escalate.
“Study Reveals Bot-On-Bot Editing Wars Raging On Wikipedia’s Pages” – The Guardian
Pretending Not To Panic 