Marijuana Firm's 'The Donald' Bot Convinces Trump Supporters It's Real

Donald Bot Trump Facebook Messenger
Marijuana firm Bang Holdings has created a Donald Trump bot that Facebook users are mistaking for a real person. Bang Holdings

Given Donald Trump's business acumen, it is perhaps no surprise that the first items sold through Facebook by a bot come from one called "The Donald."

Developed by marijuana firm Bang Holdings, the artificial intelligence (AI) personality, aptly named The Donald Bot, is apparently so realistic that some customers don't even realize they are talking to a chatbot.

The cannabis company decided to model its bot on the Republican presidential candidate due to the large and enthusiastic supporter base it felt it could engage with. Having attracted close to half a million fans on Facebook, the bot is now selling digital copies of the U.S. Constitution.

"The Donald is actually successfully selling his own annotated copies of the U.S. Constitution directly to consumers via Facebook Messenger," Lee Molloy, CMO of Bang Holdings, tells Newsweek.

"We believe, and have yet to be proven wrong, that this is the first time a bot has been selling directly through Facebook with natural language."

Molloy also claims that The Donald bot marks the first time people are buying something from whom they believe to be a real person while interacting with a bot.

"Remarkably, although most of The Donald's supporters understand they are not conversing directly with Trump, many believe they are speaking with a human representative," says Bang Holdings CEO Steve Berke.

"They seem to have no idea that they have been chatting, and even negotiating the purchase price of a product, with a robot. We are proud to be the first company to break this major AI technological barrier."

It is not the first bot to take inspiration from Trump, with MIT researchers creating a Twitter bot earlier this year by training it on transcripts of the presidential hopeful.

The DeepDrumpf Trump Twitter bot has so far amassed 27,000 followers on the social media platform, coming up with tweets that include: "I'm what ISIS doesn't need," and "I love me."

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About the writer


Anthony Cuthbertson is a staff writer at Newsweek, based in London.  

Anthony's awards include Digital Writer of the Year (Online ... Read more

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