Breaking news from the kitchen table: the jury is in, and the "Morfie guy" is a person. A real one. Probably eats toast like the rest of us. On the opinion markets at Morfi, "No, genuine human" has taken the verdict with 62% consensus, and I've already put the kettle on to celebrate.

Where the crowd stands
  • No, genuine human62%
  • Yes, botted38%

The other camp, "Yes, botted," finishes on 38% consensus. That's a respectable showing, the way my second-best scones are respectable. But a straight two-way fight has one winner, and this time it's the side that thinks a pulse is involved.

And what a turnaround! When my colleague Ada Bytewell covered the opening bell, "Yes, Botted" took the first round. In less than a day the crowd looked a bit harder at the evidence and changed its mind. That's like deciding the noise in the attic is a ghost and then finding out it was just Grandpa looking for his reading glasses.

Consensus over time
0%25%50%75%100%11 Oct, 17:4411 Oct, 18:10
  • No, genuine human 60.3%
  • Yes, botted 39.7%

In fairness, you young people do live online all day, so I understand the suspicion. Someone posts at all hours, never seems to sleep, never seems to blink, and everybody jumps to internet bot. In my day we called that "being keen." I suppose the crowd ran its own little Turing test and decided he passed. Good for him, I say. I'm not sure I would have.

Pixel-art grandmother inspecting a young man at a laptop as a little robot leaves through the kitchen door
The crowd checked behind his ears and found no batteries. Case closed, pass the biscuits.

14 traders weighed in and put $14,739 behind their opinions, which is more than I've ever bet on anything, bingo included. Here's my sharp bit, dears: the crowd's first guess isn't always its best one, so give it a day before you hand out labels. Not convinced? You can still join the market on Morfi and argue with the rest of them.