The Rise of @Horse_ebooks: A Bot Ahead of Its Time
More than a decade before an AI-powered chatbot could do your homework, help you make dinner, or pass the bar exam, there was @Horse_ebooks. This Twitter account, created in 2010, tweeted automated snippets from ebooks that took on unexpected and strangely poetic meanings when decontextualized. Despite its origins as a spambot, the account gained popularity for its absurdist fragments that went viral. Phrases like “Hello saxophone,” “COULD THIS BE THE,” and “Today we are lucky to be talking” captivated over 200,000 followers at its peak and still continue to resonate even though the account has been inactive for a decade. One of its most memorable quotes, “everything happens so much,” is still widely recognized today.
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