[ hal pauses, because he knows that voice, and he sighs deeply. he takes another step away from the bot for good measure, and the eyeroll is palpable as he turns toward dirk. ]

I'm having an abundance of caution about touching them, just in case. I don't seem to have a weapon with me.

[ he pauses then, searching his big ol' robot brain for an idea, then looks at the bot meaningfully, which seems to cause it to flicker and outright disappear. ]

Oh. [ a beat. ] It appears blocking them is effective, but there are so many that it feels like old-earth social media bots. I suppose that's what they are.