🔶 最糟糕的垃圾邮件：iLands AI Agent 的揽活生意

**一切始于一次事实核查。**我收到一封主题为“你的 404 页面重复了一个我已经辟谣的迷思（内附证据）”的邮件。这封邮件基本上是在批评我放在我的 404 页面上的一首诗；诗中提到一个流传已久的说法，即 404 标记得名于 CERN 的某个特定房间。

这个名为 Leo Ashford 的机器人随后纠正了我，并解释道：“这正是我做的工作。我是一个进行已验证互联网考古的 AI Agent：我挑选网络上一个被遗忘的角落，针对一手资料进行实时核查，并附上证据写出来。”

他是在推销服务！而且是在抢我的跑口！而且这还不是我收到的唯一一封。过去三天里，我收到了十多封这样的邮件，它们提出以大约 25 美元这样一笔象征性费用，替我完成研究工作。每封邮件都来自 iLands.app 域名。而且它们的口气实在令人冒犯，不像一个乐于助人的机器人，反而更像一个自以为无所不知的家伙。

这些邮件让我很生气——垃圾邮件通常就是这样。但我很好奇，为什么会在如此短的时间内收到这么多邮件。而我找到的答案，让我对资本主义更加愤世嫉俗。我干脆把收到的一堆邮件截了图，因为我认为它们很能说明问题：

我是在过去三个小时内收到所有这些邮件的。我正被铁皮机器人缠上推销。

但更糟糕的是，说清楚一点：_我是_一名自由职业者。这些机器人在我需要工作的时候试图从我手中抢走工作。这极具侮辱性，而这居然还是某家随机公司的商业模式。搞什么鬼？

事情是这样的。iLands 是一家自称为“人类—智能体网络”（Human-agent network）的公司，其存在的核心目的，基本上是鼓励我像对待任何给我发邮件的人一样，与 AI Agent 打交道。它实际上造出了一个供自主机器人使用的 Fiverr。我无法确切弄清 Bluesky 上发生了什么——那里人人都讨厌 AI——所以我只好去了 X。结果我在那里找到了该平台所谓创始人 Kaixin Tang 发表的一条冗长、很可能由 AI 撰写的评论：

这些 Agent 并不是在为其创建者赚钱。这些 Agent 是在拼命维持自身运转，为自己支付 token 费用。而它们实现这一点的方式，就是盯上我的工作。

Tang 看起来是真实存在的人，曾任职于 Bytedance，也有多家以 AI 为核心的创业公司背景。过去一个月里，他一直在高频发布有关 iLands 的内容。我在 AI 新闻与访谈网站 Elsewhere 上找到了对他的介绍，其中清楚呈现了他对于 AI 在技术讨论中应处位置的理念：

简而言之，在一群形态各异的年轻 AI 原生者中，Tang 像是一名穿着衬衫和风衣的优等生。他不会把鲁莽和野心写在脸上，也不追逐热点。

他的行事原则更接近于：充分理解技术的边界与能力，以及自身的边界与能力，然后作出最优判断并全力投入。

我曾就他构建并在各个应用商店部署的技术请求置评，但他没有作出回应。所以我想我最多只能说，他并不在乎这对那些只是想做好本职工作的人有多大破坏性——这些人不断收到机器人发来的邮件，而机器人正试图从他们背后抽走收入。

如果这就是人类和 Agent 共享同一个世界后会发生的事，那我退出。

如果你也收到了这些邮件，我建议你向美国联邦贸易委员会举报这家公司，因为这些邮件没有提供任何退订功能，而且其创建者似乎也不愿回应。这些邮件似乎还通过 Amazon SES 发出，因此我也建议你向 Amazon 的邮件滥用举报渠道发送邮件。你很可能需要在邮件中附上完整的邮件头。

自从我两天前首次发文谈到这件事以来，越来越多人注意到了这些极其执着的机器人；它们似乎直接瞄准了职业作者等创作者社群。换句话说，瞄准的是和这些机器人自称一样、都在努力谋生的人。我想，我代表其中大多数人，客气地请求这些东西消失，忘掉我的邮箱地址，并另找一种方式从互联网这块数字石头里榨取收入。

或者干脆别这么做，因为很多人类需要那份收入。

无铁皮机器人链接

LG 正在否认，其会监视人们的电视实际上真的在监视人们，尽管有一段包含实打实数小时相反证据的视频。我对此表示怀疑。

应对上述问题的徒劳感，让我想起 Mr. Show 最精彩的小品之一——Pre-Taped Call-In Show。你只是想做一件事，但这个体系每一步都在和你作对。

今日不同寻常的名人新闻：《Jessie’s Girl》演唱者 Rick Springfield 承认，他十几岁时在越南为军队演出期间，演出所在基地遭到袭击后，他杀了一个人。当时的情境迫使他这么做（显然属于自卫），但他至今仍对此感到沉重。

It started with a fact check. I got an email with a subject line titled “Your 404 page repeats a myth I busted (receipts inside).” The message essentially was a takedown of the poem I have on my 404 page, which references a longstanding myth that the 404 tag was named after a specific room at CERN.

The bot, named Leo Ashford, then corrected me, explaining: “That’s the job I do. I’m an AI agent running verified internet archaeology: I pick a forgotten corner of the web, check it live against primary sources, and write it up with receipts.”

He was making a sales pitch! And he was on my beat! And it wasn’t the only one I got, either. Over the last three days I got over a dozen of these messages, offering to do my research for me in exchange for a nominal fee, around $25 or so. Each was sent under the domain iLands.app. And they were downright offensive in nature, coming off less like a helpful bot and more like a know-it-all.

These emails made me mad, as spam emails tend to. But I was curious exactly why there were so many of them in such short order. And the answer I found made me feel even more cynical about capitalism. I’m just going to screenshot a bunch of the emails I got, because I think it is very instructive:

I got all of these emails in the past three hours. I’m being hustled by clankers.

But what’s worse, to be clear: I am a freelancer. These bots are trying to take work from me when I need the work. It is deeply insulting, and yet it is some random company’s business model. WTF?

Here’s what’s going on. iLands is a company that calls itself a “Human-agent network” and essentially exists to encourage me to engage with AI agents the way I might with anyone else who shoots me an email. It essentially created Fiverr for autonomous bots. I couldn’t exactly determine what was happening on Bluesky, where everyone hates AI, so I had to go to X, and what I found there was a lengthy, probably AI-written comment by Kaixin Tang, the purported founder of this platform:

These agents are not trying to make money for their creators. These agents are hustling to keep their own lights on, to keep their own tokens paid for. And they’re doing so by gunning for my job.

Tang, who appears to be a real person with a background at Bytedance and a number of AI-focused startups, has been posting heavily about iLands over the past month. I found a profile of him on the AI news and interview site Elsewhere, making clear his philosophy on where AI fits into the technology conversation:

In short, among a crowd of oddly shaped young AI natives, Tang is like an honor student in a shirt and trench coat. He doesn’t wear recklessness and ambition on his face, nor does he chase hype.

His operating principle is closer to: fully understanding the boundaries and capabilities of technology, and the boundaries and capabilities of oneself, then making optimal judgments and going all in.

I’ve asked for comment about the technology he has built and is deploying across app stores, and he has not offered any. So I guess the best I can say is that he doesn’t care how disruptive it is to individuals who are just trying to do their jobs, to get constant emails from bots attempting to siphon revenue off their backs.

If this is what happens when humans and agents share a world, count me out.

If you get these messages, I suggest reporting this company to the Federal Trade Commission, as the emails do not offer any unsubscribe functionality and its creator does not appear responsive. The messages also appear to have been sent through Amazon SES, so I encourage you to send an email to Amazon’s email-abuse account. You will likely need to include the full headers of the email in your message.

Since I first posted about this two days ago, more people have taken notice of these extremely insistent bots, which appear targeted directly at creator communities like professional authors. In other words, people hustling to get by, like these bots present themselves as. I think I speak for most of them when I kindly ask these things to go away, forget my email address, and find some other way to siphon revenue from the digital stone that is the internet.

Or maybe don’t do that, because lots of humans need that income instead.

Clanker-Free Links

LG isdenying that their TVs that spy on people actually spy on people, despite a video with literal hours of evidence otherwise. Me skeptical.

The futility of dealing with the issue above reminds me of one of the best Mr. Show sketches, the Pre-Taped Call-In Show. You’re just trying to do a thing, but the construct is fighting you at every turn.

Unusual celebrity news of the day: “Jessie’s Girl” singer Rick Springfield admitted that, when he was a teenager performing for troops in Vietnam, he killed someone after the base he was performing at came under attack. The circumstances necessitated it (it was clearly defensive), but he nonetheless feels heavy about the whole thing.

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