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Researchers built a fake Twitter populated with bots — not to be confused with actual Twitter, now X, which is only mostly bots.

And it turns out there’s some promise that these kinds of simulacra can actually tell us something about humans, per a fascinating read from Business Insider.

How it worked

Lead scientist Petter Törnberg and his team built 500 chatbots using ChatGPT 3.5. Each had a persona, specifying its age, gender, income level, religion, politics, preferences, etc.

The bots were fed news from July 1, 2020 and let loose inside a Twitter-like social media platform to discuss it.

Why? To study how to build a better social network, given the idea that large language models (LLMs) — designed to act like people conversing — would allow researchers to efficiently study human behavior.

So what happened?

The study used three different models for how its Twitter functioned:

• The echo chamber showed posts from other bots with shared ideologies. This Twitter was pleasant, but quiet.
• “Discover” populated feeds with the posts with the most likes. It saw high — but often negative — engagement.
• “Bridging algorithm” showed bots the posts with the most likes, but only from the bots with opposite political beliefs. This Twitter also saw high engagement, but the divergent bots often found common ground.

Törnberg told Insider that when discussing partisan issues “if 50% of the people you agree with vote for a different party than you do, that reduces polarization. Your partisan identity is not being activated.”

Of course…

… these are just bots in a sandbox and there’s still work to be done when it comes to training methods and ethics.

But Lisa Argyle, a political scientist at Brigham Young University, said LLMs with identity profiles like these often answer survey questions similar to the humans they were modeled after — so maybe there’s hope for social media yet.

So yes, coworking giant WeWork filed for bankruptcy this month.

But that doesn’t mean the industry is dead — an estimated 28.2% of full-time employees have adopted a hybrid work schedule and 12.7% work from home full-time.

That leaves many looking for a space between the office and the spare bedroom that’s affordable, convenient, and customized.

And WeWork’s former competitors are ready to answer the call, per The Wall Street Journal:

• IWG says 8m+ people use its 4k+ workspace locations globally, offering both individual coworking memberships and corporate office space.
• Industrious has coworking spaces for individuals, small teams, and larger businesses around the world.
• Liquidspace and Radious are marketplaces for on-demand workspaces.

Plus, small coworking operations are springing up, promising more niche experiences.

Texas-based SheSpace caters to professional women and New York’s Malin focuses on a boutique, hospitality focused experience.

Companies are learning from WeWork’s mistakes

While many WeWork locations were in busy downtown areas, today’s hybrid and remote workers are looking to minimize lengthy commutes by finding coworking space closer to their homes.

Pre-pandemic, 30% of the Industrious locations were outside of major business districts. Today, it’s 70%.

This means the future of coworking might look more suburban, with spaces increasingly springing up in residential areas — like your local coffee shop, but better.

And 40% of companies plan to increase their use of flexible work spaces, including coworking, according to a JLL report from May.

Coworking will look different, too

Tomorrow’s coworking spaces might look more like your living room, with comfort and flexibility prioritized.

Plus, unconventional spaces will continue to pop up as coworking companies look to give customers space close to home.

We’re not kidding: Radious says some of its most commonly booked listings are a 1970s Airstream and a yurt.