Safe Distances

Abstract

Online human-to-human (and human-to-robot) hyper-personal relationships have evolved over the years, and their prevalence has broadened the available cyberattack surfaces. With the deployment of malicious socialbots on social media in the virtual and AI-informed embodied socialbots in the real, human interests in socializing have become more fraught and risky. Based on the research literature, abductive reasoning from in-world experiences, and analogical analysis to project into the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this work suggests the importance of greater awareness of the risks in interrelating in the virtual and the real and suggests that there are no safe distances.