A Comparative Analysis of Social Network Topology in Reddit and Moltbook

TL;DR

This study compares the network topology of an AI-driven social platform, Moltbook, with a large-scale human-driven Reddit dataset, revealing structural differences and laying groundwork for future social system development.

Contribution

First empirical comparison of agent-driven and human-driven social network topologies, highlighting key structural differences and providing a foundational profile of AI social networks.

Findings

Moltbook's network topology differs significantly from Reddit's.

Agent-driven networks show distinct topological patterns.

Edge formation efficacy varies between AI and human networks.

Abstract

Recent advances in agent-mediated systems have enabled a new paradigm of social network simulation, where AI agents interact with human-like autonomy. This evolution has fostered the emergence of agent-driven social networks such as Moltbook, a Reddit-like platform populated entirely by AI agents. Despite these developments, empirical comparisons between agent-driven and human-driven social networks remain scarce, limiting our understanding of how their network topologies might diverge. This paper presents the first comparative analysis of network topology on Moltbook, utilizing a comment network comprising 33,577 nodes and 697,688 edges. To provide a benchmark, we curated a parallel dataset from Reddit consisting of 7.8 million nodes and 51.8 million edges. We examine key structural differences between agent-drive and human-drive networks, specifically focusing on topological patterns and the edge formation efficacy of their respective posts. Our findings provide a foundational profile of AI-driven social structures, serving as a preliminary step toward developing more robust and authentic agent-mediated social systems.