New study finds bots and fraud farms responsible for 73% of web traffic::undefined
The fact that this post is by a bot makes it sound so ironic
Holy shit, thinking of all the resources that are just wasted for this shit… Imagine you could just slash all web infrastructures by two thirds.
I really hate the phrase “bots” because it gives the appearance that they’re all useless and malicious. I guarantee you they lumped in the following extremely valid uses of “bots”:
- Automated personal scripts that many programmers use, these are technically bots. Hell, I use a “bot” to auto-clip digital Safeway coupons
- Moderation bots on sites like Lemmy/Reddit
- Archive efforts
Are AI chatbots bots? If they use a loose enough definition all this means is humans utilize fuck tons of automation over the Internet, both programmers and not.
I use a “bot” to auto-clip digital Safeway coupons
How?
Removed by mod
“Father, what is my purpose?”
“You clip coupons.”
“… Oh my god…”
Then the bot goes and gets their little bot scissors
But digitally.
and their bot newspaper,
But digitally.
then clips up some coupons
But digitally.
and hands them to OP.
But digitally.
They said we’d all be living in a VR world by now back in the 90s!
Why do you think that such bots cause a relevant amount of traffic?
And I thought porn and cat pictures where responsible for 70% of web traffic… TIL
This is just what the bots are into.
Yeah dead internet. And I hope this news will kill online marketing for good
Wonder what the engineering solution to this could look like…
Thinking something like a zero trust model being required for all web requests… Like the target address would need to receive a validated identity token from some third party but that token couldn’t contain identifying info about the requester. Likewise, the validating third party would need to verify the identity of the requester without having knowledge of the target address.
Then that raises more questions like who would we all be comfortable trusting as a verifier and what data would we use for that validation? The validation system and the data used to validate would need to be provided for free too to account for low income people so no subscription services or hardware MFA keys. Also who counts as an identity to be validated?
What do enforcement mechanisms look like if this does get built? Are the validators entirely passive or do they actively participate in the process? Like do we have rate limits imposed by the validation engine or do we just leave that to the target address/organization to impose themselves? What happens if someone is banned from a site? Does the site notify the validators to drop requests earlier in the lifetime of a request? Do individuals get a lower request quota than corporations? Would you have to form a company just to prototype a new tool/product?
If someone seriously wanted to work on this I’d jump on the opportunity to work with them. It sounds like a fascinating project.
It’s called Google’s “Web Integrity API” and it’s a horrifically bad idea.
Giving india access to to the internet was a mistake
None of the Indians I’ve met are bots
They are the ones who make bots that flood the internet. But yes most of them act like bots too.
Most bot generated content is from things like ChatGPT, so are you going to be mad at people in San Francisco now?
Hmm… If it wasn’t for Starfleet Headquarters being there I’d say yes.
Just one year until the Bell Riots.
I’m talking about times before the ai meme was taken on by the masses
Bravely said on a throwaway. 🙄
Good morning sir
Oh no! Poor people!
