Humans Now Share the Web Equally With Bots, Report Warns (independent.co.uk) 32
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent, published last month: Humans now share the web equally with bots, according to a major new report -- as some fear that the internet is dying. In recent months, the so-called "dead internet theory" has gained new popularity. It suggests that much of the content online is in fact automatically generated, and that the number of humans on the web is dwindling in comparison with bot accounts. Now a new report from cyber security company Imperva suggests that it is increasingly becoming true. Nearly half, 49.6 per cent, of all internet traffic came from bots last year, its "Bad Bot Report" indicates. That is up 2 percent in comparison with last year, and is the highest number ever seen since the report began in 2013. In some countries, the picture is worse. In Ireland, 71 per cent of internet traffic is automated, it said.
Some of that rise is the result of the adoption of generative artificial intelligence and large language models. Companies that build those systems use bots scrape the internet and gather data that can then be used to train them. Some of those bots are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Imperva warned. More and more of them come from residential internet connections, which makes them look more legitimate. "Automated bots will soon surpass the proportion of internet traffic coming from humans, changing the way that organizations approach building and protecting their websites and applications," said Nanhi Singh, general manager for application security at Imperva. "As more AI-enabled tools are introduced, bots will become omnipresent."
Some of that rise is the result of the adoption of generative artificial intelligence and large language models. Companies that build those systems use bots scrape the internet and gather data that can then be used to train them. Some of those bots are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Imperva warned. More and more of them come from residential internet connections, which makes them look more legitimate. "Automated bots will soon surpass the proportion of internet traffic coming from humans, changing the way that organizations approach building and protecting their websites and applications," said Nanhi Singh, general manager for application security at Imperva. "As more AI-enabled tools are introduced, bots will become omnipresent."
The new social media platform... (Score:3)
I mean, most people have moved over to the new social media platform called "Dude, this outside thing is amazing. Have you heard of trees? Those things are wild!"
Re: (Score:2)
I mean, most people have moved over to the new social media platform called "Dude, this outside thing is amazing. Have you heard of trees? Those things are wild!"
Um ... college age kids are more glued to their devices than anybody has been, ever, before.
So ... no. "Most people" post on social media about how they are "taking a break" from social media, lol.
It is inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
Yes there is, we can use a web-of-trust system, and in-person key exchange parties. This could also do wonders for trolling and fake reviews, but make anonymity harder.
Re: (Score:2)
In-person key exchange; so no more having friends all around the world unless you're willing to spend a LOT of money.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a web; once you're connected, you're connected to everyone else in it.
Re: (Score:2)
This could be a good thing! The AIs will be so busy reading and writing the web, they might leave us alone. AND the internet will be so crappy that people might get tired of it, and talk to *each other* again!
Re: (Score:1)
Web Directories (Score:5, Insightful)
This all rings true. Most search results are just bot-curated pages of answers copied from somewhere else, mixed with some low-quality posts of Reddit. Rarely you stumble on a treasure trove of links that someone put together in a list of Github. Maybe it's time for hand-curated web directories to start back up again.
Can you even tell? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Parallel webs (Score:2)
We'll eventually break up into walled gardens with identity restricted webs where anonymity isn't allowed.
What percentage of these robots (Score:1)
are being used for click fraud?
Impossible (Score:1)
Elon Musk said he would eliminate all twitter bots.
Re: (Score:3)
been sayin that for years now (Score:2, Interesting)
not according to my bot (Score:1)
The only thing I see (Score:2)
are bots wasting advertisers money. Not sure what else these bots are purchasing?
Maybe this is a good thing and we get smart about how we spend our money.
Hah that won't happen, what was I thinking. The average human is a s smart as the smart tv they own.../s
Humans are up to 1/2? (Score:2)
Hmm... (Score:2)
Humans Now Share the Web Equally With Bots
I have conflicting feelings about this. :-)
Starts with the content. (Score:3)
Searching for content/information all too often leads to only bot-generated results. Hard to drive engagement that way.
Re: (Score:2)
Dey took arr jobs (Score:3)
So people on slashdot would claim automation was stupid because if humans didn't have jobs, who would buy the products made in automated factories? Well here's your answer. Bots. Bots will buy stuff, and recycle it too. You don't recycle, do you? Well the bots do.
Phone system gave way to 90+% bots in the year (Score:3)
I get between 30 and 50 robo calls per day. I get maybe 1 legit call per day. Bot have already taken over the phone system and made it largely unusable. Many people don't answer the phone anymore because of this.
Re: (Score:2)
My favorite is the crypto scam groups I get added to on WhatsApp. They're entertaining to read, I am 100% sure mad people are falling for those.
Re: (Score:2)
I get between 30 and 50 robo calls per day. I get maybe 1 legit call per day. Bot have already taken over the phone system and made it largely unusable. Many people don't answer the phone anymore because of this.
One day a couple weeks ago I was feeling kind of like I had the flu. Luckily I didn't have to go into work. Anyway, I silenced my phone at about 4AM. I also have the iPhone call reject feature that sends things directly to voicemail if I haven't whitelisted them. At about 5:30 in the afternoon I checked my phone again. I had (wait for it) *70* calls that had come in from random numbers and never left a voice message. So no, most people don't really answer their phone anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Ouch!
Why do you bother to keep a phone at all? Social Media? Instant Messaging? OK, I think I see the problem.
I get about 2-3 spam calls per MONTH - usually robo-dialed. I let family and friends know that I am glad to hear from them, but please do not share my number. I prefer to chat over voice vs an app. BTW is that really considered "chatting" when you do it over an app? I will check the privacy policy of a company before I give them my number, thi
Re: (Score:2)
A good and necessary start, but unfortunately it's nowhere near enough. You can secure your own stuff, but you can't secure the devices of everyone who knows you.
As soon as one of your friends and family (and professional contacts, work colleagues, recruiters, and more) are ignorant enough to install an app that demands access to the phone's Contacts list and phone call log, your contact information will be s
We share it equally with bots now? (Score:3)
We managed to get rid of about 90% of the bots recently? Wow.
Bad news for AI (Score:2)