Why are there so many random AI opponents in rapid games?

If most of them were just there to play chess, why would the site require you to log in before you can use the chat feature? Why is there even a chat feature to begin with, if what you say is true?

These questions are so silly lol. Like come on

of course the site is going to make you log in to chat. If you abuse that feature they can ban your account. If they let anonymous people chat then how would they track/punish that without IP banning or whatnot

Chat exists as an option that people can use. A vast majority of people won’t use it in any given game

I suspect I’m getting trolled here but it’s still enjoyable to think this guy might be serious 

You're not getting trolled. I feel like you're the one who's trolling me. You also answered your own question and didn't bother really answering mine. If you abuse the chat feature as a guest, the site can just ban your IP address. It really is that simple. And you just said it yourself that you wouldn't put it past the site to suppress player ratings in order to get them to buy membership plans that promise to make them better chess players. The only real way they could suppress player ratings is to have them face bots posing as real players every few games. This could also be the same way they catch cheaters- if players are using chess engines to win games and they happen to win against an AI they aren't supposed to, that would immediately raise a red flag and it would much easier to do rather than use "advanced algorithms" and any other complicated-sounding explanations.

The site isn't going to IP ban without good reason lol, there are plenty of accounts under same IPs esp w families, companies/universities etc. It's really not difficult to understand why people need to have an account in order to chat on a site like this

And yeah I don't see any evidence at all that your theory is true. You can flesh it out as deeply as you want but the fact is there's nothing supporting your belief that this is happening, so it's all just a fantasy/conspiracy really. This thread is like reading a fanfiction or something

The beauty of the whole thing from the perspective of the website is that a regular player like me wouldn't be able to prove it. There's no way a site that actually does this would provide anyone the tools to prove that's what they're doing. The fact that you keep brushing what I'm saying off as rantings of a crazy person or someone who is trolling is suspect because that's what the site would want to make it look like. And having that NM next to your name while you do it is a nice touch.

Yeah I'm an AI obviously, you've caught me, now what

It is very likely that at lower elo (like me who's an Israeli) I often encounter players who don't respond to chat. Either they actually are non English speakers or they just don't want to talk socially. That's socially. Gameplay wise I don't know. I have played around 20 games overall I guess (I am new to chess) and half of them I suspect are AI or bots. Hopefully not. Their country is usually non English speaking (I often play with players from Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Nepal) because, location. I also played against an Algerian who tried to talk to me in Arabic, not English. Not sure with gameplay but socially it's not hard to tackle and find out why.

I didn't say you were an AI. But many of the people reading this thread will be able to read between the lines and infer that an NM rushing to the site's defense and brushing off the OP as a crazy person or a troll is a little suspect. And the fact that you accused me of trolling you when you were the one who responded to my post doesn't make any sense. I'd like to chalk up your smug and condescending attitude to a simple case of survivorship bias but I think it's a little more than that. I don't think it's happenstance that an NM is here to make me look like a troll.

I don't think I've done much to defend this site in this thread; actually anyone who knows me well knows I've been kinda openly critical of a lot of things about this site lol

No one reading this thread is going to think me posting here is "suspect," I've been on these forums for years and seen all kinds of silly posts like this (although none with this claim) and have roasted the respective OPs accordingly  

I can bump this post every now and again to see who agrees with who over time. You're right, I can't prove any of the claims I'm making. I can only go by my experience and the experience of other players. It will be interesting to see what other players have to say on the subject. Hopefully they won't troll me as hard as you're trolling me now.