Ever-increasing numbers of human interactions with intelligent software agents, online and offline, and their increasing ability to influence humans have prompted a surge in attention toward the concept of (online) manipulation. Several scholars have argued that manipulative influence is always hidden. But manipulation is sometimes overt, and when this is acknowledged the distinction between manipulation and other forms of social influence becomes problematic. Therefore, we need a better conceptualisation of manipulation that allows it to be overt and yet clearly distinct from related concepts of social influence. I argue that manipulation is careless influence, show how this account helps to alleviate the shortcomings of the hidden influence view of manipulation, and derive implications for digital ethics.

人类与智能软件代理的在线和离线交互数量不断增加，以及它们影响人类的能力不断增强，促使人们对（在线）操纵概念的关注激增。一些学者认为，操纵性影响总是隐藏的。但是操纵有时是公开的，当承认这一点时，操纵和其他形式的社会影响之间的区别就会变得有问题。因此，我们需要对操纵进行更好的概念化，使其能够明显地与相关的社会影响概念截然不同。我认为操纵是粗心的影响，展示了这个帐户如何帮助减轻操纵的隐藏影响观点的缺点，并得出对数字伦理的影响。