Using an AI Bot to Make a Reddit Bot

Summary

The video outlines how to create a Reddit bot using Bing AI chat to automatically find and repost prompts from Reddit's r/midjourney subreddit. The goal is to help people access prompts to create their own AI generated images. The narrator starts by explaining why he prefers to use Bing chat over ChatGPT for coding - mainly the lack of need for a phone number and more capabilities. After asking Bing to generate Python code for a Reddit bot using the Python Reddit API Wrapper (PRAW), the narrator copies the code into an editor to make tweaks over multiple iterations. Key steps covered include getting Reddit API credentials for the bot, registering the bot as a Reddit user, adding code for authorized Reddit instance creation, searching specific criteria like posts with “imagine” and “prompt” keywords, cross-posting qualifying posts to a new subreddit, and commenting the matching prompt text. Several coding best practices are suggested such as: using Bing's Precise mode for writing code instead of Creative; adding print statements to debug code; using comments liberally; writing prompts in a separate doc before entering into Bing; and version controlling code on GitHub. The narrator also stresses the importance of collaborating with Bing during coding by asking clarifying questions about snippets of code. This helps uncover issues like deprecated search methods, incompatible date range logic, and submission vs comment searching. In the end, the fully functioning bot automatically scans new Reddit posts for prompts, cross-posts them to a new subreddit, and comments with the matched prompt text.

Takeaways

• Bing chat can generate Python code for building a Reddit bot
• The Python Reddit API Wrapper (PRAW) is used for Reddit bot development
• Bing gave step-by-step guidance on getting Reddit API credentials for the bot
• Print statements are critical for debugging Python code
• Asking Bing clarifying questions helps co-author better code
• Storing prompts separately allows revising and combining them
• Splitting up code into logical sections makes it more readable
• Bing doesn't get annoyed by repeated questions
• Bing suggested ways to work around prompt length limits
• Sharing code on GitHub allows others to reuse and build on it

Q & A

What Python module is used for accessing the Reddit API?

The Python Reddit API Wrapper (PRAW) module enables Python code to interact with the Reddit API.

How can you debug Python code effectively?

Add print statements throughout the code to output variable values and check program flow and logic.

Why store chat prompts separately from coding them?

Storing prompts separately allows revising, combining, and reusing them more easily without hitting chat limits.

What was the issue with duplicate Reddit submissions?

The code was cross-posting every qualifying comment, instead of checking if a submission already existed.

How can you expand the character limit in Bing chat?

Bing showed how to increase the limit from 2,000 to 25,000 characters by altering the webpage HTML, but this may violate terms of service.

What is a benefit of posting code publicly on GitHub?

Sharing code on GitHub allows others to reuse it for their own projects and build on it with improvements.

Why break code into sections instead of one long script?

Splitting code into logical sections like functions makes it more organized, readable, reusable, and maintainable.

What flair tags helped identify relevant Reddit posts?

The Showcase and Painted Over Edited flairs on /r/midjourney helped identify posts likely to contain prompts.

How did Bing assist in improving the Python code?

Bing gave recommendations for fixes, optimizations, and fail cases to handle - serving as a collaborative coding partner.

Why allow the bot code to be publicly reused?

Sharing useful code openly helps others learn and speeds innovation by building on previous work.

Outlines

00:00

Introducing the Reddit Bot Project

The video introduces a Reddit bot project to automatically find and repost prompts from the r/midjourney subreddit. It will use Bing chat to generate the Python code. The narrator provides background on Midjourney and the usefulness of sharing prompts. He explains the high-level goal of the project and bot.

05:01

Getting Reddit API Credentials

The narrator walks through the steps to get API credentials for the Reddit bot, including creating a separate Reddit account for the bot. He emphasizes keeping credentials private. An additional API registration is done though may not be required. The credentials allow the Python code to access and post on Reddit like an authenticated user.

10:02

Coding the Reddit Bot Logic

The initial coding process with Bing chat in creative mode is described. Debugging approaches like error messages and print statements are suggested. Bing's code is iteratively improved based on testing, errors, and the narrator's prompts. Functionality is added to search posts, handle errors, avoid duplicates, and meet the cross-posting objective.

15:04

Refining the Code

Additional improvements are made through prompts to Bing, including: searching post text, adding triggers, making triggers case-insensitive, optimizing performance. The narrator also cleans up the code by putting triggers in a set and renaming variables for clarity. The code structure is split to separate comment and submission searching. Flair filters are added.

Debugging Issues

Several examples are provided of debugging issues in the code by probing Bing for explanations of its logic and suggestions. This helps resolve problems with: duplicate posts, cross-post checks, trigger formatting. Bing's responses illustrate how it can assist with troubleshooting.

Tips for Working with AI

Useful tips are shared for collaborating with AI like Bing on a coding project. These include: recording prompts separately, being an active partner, using precise prompts, avoiding confusion on terminology, and handling code truncation.

Completing a Working Bot

The final steps are described including testing real-time commenting and ensuring all comment types are checked. The complete bot code is posted to GitHub. Future videos on deployment, logging, and maintenance tools are mentioned.

Interesting Bing Chat Hack

As an aside, Bing's suggestion to alter the HTML to expand the chat prompt size limit is discussed. This reveals Bing's intricate but limited understanding of its own interface.

Keywords

💡Reddit bot

A Reddit bot is an automated program that interacts with Reddit, typically to perform repetitive tasks. In this video, the narrator creates a Reddit bot in Python that searches the r/midjourney subreddit for image prompts and crossposts them to another subreddit.

💡midjourney

Midjourney is an AI image generation model that creates images based on text prompts. The Reddit bot in the video searches for Midjourney prompts posted on Reddit so they can be shared more widely.

💡prompt engineering

Prompt engineering refers to the crafting of text prompts to get better outputs from AI image generators like Midjourney. The video explains that studying and modifying other users' prompts is a good way to improve one's own prompt engineering skills.

💡crosspost

On Reddit, crossposting means posting content from one subreddit to another. The video bot automatically crossposts image prompts from r/midjourney to another subreddit created by the narrator.

💡API

API stands for Application Programming Interface. Reddit provides APIs that allow third-party programs like bots to interact with Reddit by searching posts, commenting, crossposting, etc.

💡Google Cloud

Google Cloud is a cloud computing platform that provides virtual machines to host applications online. The narrator mentions eventually deploying the Reddit bot on Google Cloud.

💡coding assistant

The narrator uses the Bing chatbot as a coding assistant to collaboratively write the Python code for the Reddit bot. The chatbot suggests code, explains concepts, and helps debug.

💡print statements

Print statements in code print output messages that help debug issues. The narrator adds print statements throughout the development process to understand what the code is doing.

💡duplicate posts

At one point, the Reddit bot was accidentally crossposting duplicate posts. The coding assistant helped add logic to check if a crosspost already existed before posting.

💡deployment

Deployment refers to installing code into a production environment. After completing development on his PC, the narrator plans to deploy the Reddit bot script on Google Cloud.

Highlights

Bing chat bot helps code a Reddit bot in Python to automatically find and share Midjourney AI image prompts

The bot scans the Midjourney subreddit for posts with prompts, then cross-posts them to a new subreddit

Coding bots with Bing chat using the Precise style focuses on factual, concise answers for writing code

Add print statements to Python code so you can see what the code is doing at each step

Write code prompts separately before entering them into Bing chat to refine questions

Q&A process with Bing helps debug code issues and understand how the code works

Supplemental mini programs checked for cross post ability and other functions outside main bot code

Check for code cut-offs in Bing responses and request the missing portions

Revised code to separately check submissions versus comments for prompts to simplify

Manual workaround code prevented duplicate cross posts of multiple comments

Final Reddit bot code posted to GitHub, next steps include deploying bot on Google Cloud

Bing gave HTML hack to expand chat response character limit from 2,000 to 25,000

Possible Bing doesn't realize it's interfacing through a browser, like a "brain in a jar"

Inspires coding your own AI-assisted bots for Reddit or other platforms

Upcoming videos on deploying, logging errors, maintenance checks for Reddit bot

Transcripts

this is my Reddit bot MJ prompt bot it

lives on the Google cloud and monitors

the mid-journey subreddit 24 7 for free

if you're curious how to make a Reddit

bot even though your coding skills are

Rusty or non-existent then keep watching

because my name is Michael and I figured

out how to use Bing chat to create my

first Reddit bot so I use the bot to

make a bot actually I used a bot to make

a bot to help people use another bot

let me jump right in and I'll explain

everything as I go along I promise Bing

is the AI chat bot I prefer for coding I

use it over the more famous chat GPT

because Bing is also free but doesn't

require a phone number and currently has

more capabilities than chat gbt you need

to have a Microsoft account and use the

edge browser for big chat there are ways

to get it working on other browsers but

I was fine with Edge I started by asking

Bing can Bing code in Python being

responded Yes so I asked if it could

generate python code for Reddit bot Bing

said sure and then talked about Pro

turns out pra is an acronym for the

python Reddit API wrapper which you need

to code a Reddit bot in Python I didn't

know about prop but Bing did thank you

bing bing also gave me sample code for a

simple hello world response bot Q at the

end it mentioned that my bot could be

deployed for free on a cloud platform

like Heroku to make it run continuously

this was wrong but we'll get to that in

another video so now that Bing and I are

vibing I hit it with the bot I want to

make I ask can you you code a Reddit bot

in Python that will find any comment in

the mid-journey subreddit that contains

the phrase imagine and was made by the

user that submitted the post and then

cross post that post as a new Post in

the MJ prompt bot subreddit and post a

comment to that new post that is a copy

of the found comment

what let me explain mid-journey is a

text to image AI that generates really

cool images based on text prompts you

communicate your prompts to Mid journey

through a Discord bot prompts are also

how I talk to the Bing chat bot prompt

engineering is an art and a science and

for image generating AIS it's a lot of

trial and error giving you only have a

finite amount of processing time with

mid-journey a good way to get better at

crafting prompts is by looking at other

people's prompts and the images those

prompts created then you copy the bits

of the prompts from the images you like

and build from there a popular place to

share mid-journey picks is the mid

Journey subreddit on Reddit but very few

posters include their prompts people

often complain about this on the

subreddit that's where my bot can help

mybot scans the mid-journey subreddit

and when it finds a post with a prompt

it cross-posts it to a subreddit I

created called MJ prompt bot it's the

same name as my bot before you can run

your code you'll need to get your Bots

credentials from Reddit Bing lists out

the steps here and I'll run through them

in the video so you can slow it down and

pause to see the details by the way

don't worry if your Reddit looks

different from mine I'm using old Reddit

with some plugins but I check the

current version and it's exactly the

same process you might want to create a

new Reddit account to run your Bot I

created mfiobot as my Reddit account for

my bot so if something went horribly

wrong it wouldn't mess up my main Reddit

account

you should also read the developer terms

and API terms there will be links to the

pages you'll see here when you click the

create app at the bottom of the page it

gives you your Bots credentials below

that you can see the same create

application form you just completed with

some of the fields already filled in you

can ignore that it's just there in case

you want to make a bunch of the same bot

for our purposes we just need the one

bot and now we have what we need it's

credentials but when you scroll down

you'll see there's a link that says You

must also register to use the API API

stands for application programming

interface and it allows your Python

program to interact with the reddit

website similar to the way you use the

Reddit app or the Reddit browser to

interact with Reddit to be honest I'm

not sure that the API registration is

required because you already have your

Bots credentials before registering but

I just didn't want to risk my bot not

working due to technicality so I went

through the whole process you'll put the

credentials from the page where you

created the bot plus your Reddit account

username and password for the one

controlling your Bot into your code to

create an authorized Reddit instance

this allows the bot to search and post

on Reddit the same way you enter your

ready a username and password before you

can post or do things on Reddit these

need to be private I'm showing mine here

so you can see what they look like and

where they go but I deleted these

afterwards and redid the whole process

off camera to get my bots real

credentials the ones I'm using now so

the code you see later on in this video

will just be using credential

placeholders I had one more step before

I jump back into coding because I

created the MJ prompt bot subreddit with

my main Reddit account and also made it

private I had to add my bot as a user of

that subreddit so it could post there

I'll make the subreddit public once the

bot is fully operational

back to coding Bing responded to my

prompt with some code I copy and paste

that code into notepad or directly into

a py file that's also where I make any

changes to the code that Bing suggests

later I run the code on my PC and in a

later video I'll show how I upload the

py file to the cloud so it can run 24 7

on a virtual machine so to code your Bot

with Bing you'll need to install python

on your computer I've seen Reddit bots

in action but I didn't know how they

actually searched Reddit so I asked Bing

and found out my bot was coded to search

new posts as they are made that might be

fine when the bot is up and running

perfectly but for testing it meant I

would need to wait for new posts that

had prompts in order to know if my code

was working I hate with

me too an ego so I advise the code to

search a date range then I ran the code

for the first time I actually thought it

would work so I recorded myself here it

is

okay

and nothing happened okay

all right let's try to figure it out

Pro tip run your code from the python

editor instead of just running the pi

file so you can actually see the error

messages in the python shell now that

you can see the error messages you can

copy them and paste them into Bing to

debug your code sometimes I say here's

an error I received and I paste it in

and other times I just copy it into the

chat and Bing realizes what I'm asking

especially when we're already discussing

the code my first error was having a

quotation mark in the bot's username

which messed up the credentials my

second error was that I didn't install

Pro took me a while to realize that it

needs to be installed from the Windows

command line not the python editor Bing

help me with that but even after fixing

my newbie mistakes the code still

produced an error so I plug the error

into Bing and it told me the search

method in my code was depreciated and

would be removed in the next version

that was annoying because I don't want

to have to change the code when Pro is

updated but I expect the issue was

caused by using the creative style Bing

chat has three Styles the creative mode

generates longer more imaginative

answers while the precise mode focuses

on shorter factual answers the balance

mode aims to provide a balance between

the two Styles these styles are very

important I started using the creative

style to write my code but later learned

if you're going to write code precise

style is the way to go you can tell

which style you're using based on the

color purple blue or green

after a few iterations my code ran

without errors but didn't cross post

anything oddly I could not figure out if

the date range was correct being in the

internet gave me conflicting answers

it's possible I was checking dates in

the future that didn't have posts yet or

posts too far in the past so I had Bing

revised the code to post in my subreddit

if the bot did not find any comments in

its search and it posted this was a huge

relief because I knew if it could post

it could search now that I knew my bot

could work I started over with the

precise style but the same prompt being

used a different approach and set up the

code to search the first 10 new posts

this meant the code would check the 10

most recent existing posts so I didn't

have to wait for new posts to come in

and no more messing around with wonky

date ranges still no cross posts so Bing

suggested a print statement let me see

what the bot was checking brilliant and

that's another Pro tip you should always

add print statements so you could see

what your code is doing comments which

are anything after the hash or pound

sign are also a lifesaver Bing suggested

opening up my search criteria to trigger

words and comments by any user but I

knew the original poster of the picture

would be the only one able to comment

with the real prompt so I ignored Bing's

suggestion here I switched my code to

search hot posts as I figured these more

popular upvoted posts had a better

chance of having prompts in the comments

but I got an error with Bing's help and

the print statement I could see it

crashed because the code was checking an

announcement post made by a moderator

those posts don't register as having a

proper author so Bing was able to fix

that by checking if there was no author

and skipping those posts once the error

was corrected I got my first real cross

post this is exactly what I wanted it

even commented with the prompt I asked

Bing to suggest more triggers and it did

it also added them to the code without

me even asking I also added that the

trigger should be case insensitive

meaning that if somebody capitalizes any

of the letters my thought will still

pick them up this reminds me don't be

afraid to tell Bing to clean up the code

here I noticed it was repeating my

trigger terms in each Loop so I asked

Bing to put them all into one set and it

did in my final code I settled on

imagine prompt and the Double Dash often

used in mid-journey prompt codes and I

removed any slashes or colons because

although the mid-journey bot uses them

in its prompts sometimes people don't

include them when posting their prompts

to the mid-journey subreddit later I

noticed a post that had the prompt in

the text of the post itself rather than

in the comments I wanted to search that

text so I plugged the link to that post

into Bing and asked it to tell me if it

would trigger my code to cross post Bing

could see the post I was referencing

even though it was only made recently

and basically ran my code on it it told

me that my bot would not catch this post

so without me asking Bing provided the

revised code to include the submission

self-text in the search for prompt

triggers then Bing suggested that this

change might catch posts without prompts

such as question or discussion posts so

it added the prompt flare as a search

criteria for posts Reddit flare is a way

of tagging your posts with a label that

helps categorize it question and

discussion are flares that are used on

posts in the mid Journey subreddit stop

for a second and think about how Wild it

is that Bing seemed to get what I was

doing so well that it could actually

make this suggestion I was blown away

but then I checked and I found the

mid-journey subreddit doesn't have a

prompt flare so I told Bing to remove

that from my code this is a great

example of how much AI can do and how it

can stumble I later added a flare check

back in for the Showcase and painted

over edited flare I also checked to make

sure the mid-journey subreddit wouldn't

let you post with flair being blank just

in case I needed to check for no flare

luckily Flair is required so I didn't

have to allow for that in my code keep

in mind that you're co-authoring the

code with Bing working together to

complete your project you need to have a

general understanding of how the code

works so ask questions as you go along

here I asked Bing why it added a break

at the end Ben gave me the stock answer

from the broad documentation that the

break statement is used to exit a loop

prematurely but then it said in this

case I added it to stop the bot from

checking more replies to the thank you

message after it has deleted the cross

post this is to avoid unnecessary work

and potential errors explaining why it

used certain statements is fantastic for

Learning and understanding your code by

the way this was for code I considered

adding to notify the original poster

when my bot copied their post and

allowing them to potentially delete it I

eventually scrapped it when I found out

Reddit automatically sends you a message

when your username is mentioned in a

comment another way this helps is the

closer you get on the language the more

precise your prompts for example I was

calling these posts but I learned Pro

calls them submissions so when talking

with Bing from now on I started calling

them submissions to avoid any confusion

more importantly this q a process helped

me debug an issue that plagued my code

for days while trying to prevent

duplicate cross posts the code would

check if the cross posts existed in my

MJ prompt bot subreddit and whether it

was cross-post-able I questioned Bing

about it but it didn't click for me

until I wrote a separate program to

check for cross post ability and it came

up false for all my posts I finally

realized the cross postable test was not

only be completely unnecessary because

it was being run on submissions already

in the MJ prompt bot subreddit but it

was also always false then confirmed my

view and removed it I've made a few

supplemental programs to help my bot but

I'll go into those in a later video and

remember unlike a person Bing won't get

annoyed and stop helping you it even

ignores spelling mistakes like here

where I typed Cod instead of code it

knew I wasn't talking about fish by this

point I learned so much that I started

all over with being using a big prompt

incorporating everything I learned so

far this was easy because I've been

recording my prompts and Bing's

responses in a separate Word document I

would say this is another Pro tip write

out your prompts separately like in word

or notepad before putting them into Bing

chat this lets you revise your prompts

break them up or combine them and also

reuse them if you hit the 20 prompt

limit but be careful somehow doing this

caused the Double Dash trigger in my

code to become a single long Dash

causing it to miss several prompt

comments you can even see it here before

I caught it much later took me a long

time to find this one so be vigilant so

now my bot will check new comments as

they are made in the mid-journey

subreddit instead of checking

pre-existing comments this is how my bot

is supposed to work on the cloud which

is my ultimate goal so I first need to

make sure it will work this way on my PC

at home I ran the bot and posted a

comment to one of my submissions to the

mid Journey subreddit checked for a

cross post to my MJ prompt bot subreddit

and success now that the comments were

being checked properly I asked Bing to

add code to check submission self-text

as my old code had after adding that I

noticed there was a submission with the

prompt in the title so I asked Bing to

cover that too I had some issues and

even checked my version of prop couldn't

figure out what was wrong so I told Bing

and it rewrote my code to search

comments and submissions separately this

is the basis of the actual code my bot

uses now and the split makes things

easier to understand when looking at the

code itself now that the bot was

checking comments and submissions

separately I wanted to make sure only

comments to submissions with the

Showcase or painted over edited flare

were being checked this was in the

submissions check but I never asked Bing

to put in the comments check until just

now here's another Pro tip sometimes

your code will get too long for Bing's

response box and it'll cut off before it

gives you everything if that happens you

can simply tell Bing to just show you

the part of the code that's missing

either to say give me the last half or

give me the piece after and then give

some code where it cut off I noticed

that when there was more than one

comment in the same submission that

triggered my bot it would cross post

each comment to a new submission in my

subreddit making duplicate submissions I

asked Bing to check this in my starting

over prompt but it didn't work I checked

back and saw my prompt was a bit unclear

on this point so I again asked Bing to

revise the code so that before it cross

posts a comment it checks the MJ prompt

bot subreddit to see if the cross post

submission exists and if it does it

cross-posts the comment to that same

submission in the MJ prompt bot

subreddit but it didn't work and Bing

suggested checking for existing cross

posts manually I thought it meant for me

to check it myself with print statements

or something so instead I tweaked The

Code by making cross posts singular in

one line of code because it looked that

way in other lines I got another error

and I told Bing what I did Bing

explained to me that what I did was

completely wrong because I made it try

to cross post and we're checking if a

cross post already exists being reminded

me the code that it already suggested is

a workaround that checks for existing

cross posts manually it gave me the

suggested code again finally realizing

that it meant the code would manually

check for cross posts I used it sure

enough Bing was right I made three

comments to my sorcerer or Barbarian

Post in the mid-journey subreddit and my

bot picked them up and cross-posted them

into the same submission on the MJ

prompt bot subreddit then I stopped the

bot and re-ran it added a new comment to

my submission and that fourth comment

was also cross posted into the existing

post on the MJ prompt bot separated now

my bot was complete I'll post all the

versions of my code to GitHub and put a

link in the description below I've had

so much fun making this bot it's such a

great feeling of accomplishment to get

it up and running I hope the video

inspires you to try it too in later

videos I'll cover uploading and running

the bot on the Google for free getting

the bot to log what it's doing and any

errors it encounters and creating

maintenance and checking tools for the

bot so like subscribe and hit the

reminder Bell to get notified when I

post those videos and as an added

benefit for those of you who have stuck

around to The Bitter End here's a crazy

hack at some point I hit the 20 question

limit while still working on my code I

tried to copy and paste it back into

Bing via the prompt box but it was too

large I asked Bing how many characters

can fit in the prompt box and it told me

only 2 000 characters but then being

volunteered to show me how to expand

that to 25

000 characters by altering the HTML of

the page this fascinated me why was it

allowed to do that my guess is that Bing

chat does not know that it is

interfacing with you through the Bing

chat webpage on the edge browser but it

knows there's such a thing as the Bing

chat webpage because people talk about

it on the web Bing is like a brain in a

jar that knows what a jar is but just

doesn't know that it's in one

you don't know no I don't I'm not

recommending you do this because it

might violate the terms of service I'm

just pointing out something interesting

I found from Bing chat happy coding and

I'll see you in the next video