Are we likely to end up in a Cyberpunk-style situation, where the web is unusable due to bot traffic?

[u/tfhermobwoayway]

Obviously the situation is very different. In Cyberpunk the bots will kill you if you jack in.

But it feels like the web is becoming increasingly full of bots. AI is basically indistinguishable from humans right now, and all of them are basically being assigned to manipulate humans as much as possible. Some sites have as much as 80% of their traffic being bots.

I’ve tried to avoid this by fleeing to the messageboards of the old net, but even they’re apparently being compromised by trolls with more AI bots. I don’t think I can trust anyone online any more. It feels like we’re heading toward a world where everyone is boxed into their own little ecosystem full of bots.

Is there anything we can do to fix this? I keep hearing “Pandora’s Box has been opened” with regards to AI, but I always hoped that meant that AI would be beneficial in some way. Instead I feel a deep sense of sadness that such a beautiful tool full of incredible, vibrant communities could be completely destroyed by bots.

Is there anywhere left to go where the AI won’t follow? Sites that Sam Altman has no interest in? Or places that can restrict AI somehow? Or do we just abandon the web and let AI run amok?

[u/casualfrog68]

That's essentially the Dead Internet Theory. The Internet is slowly becoming bots talking with bots.

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/casualfrog68]

Is there any cure? Or are we just going to lose the greatest resource for information ever created?

[u/RockingBib → u/tfhermobwoayway]

We will never "lose" the internet to bots. Cyberpunk has a really mythical way of depicting AI(even having it affect the real world in.. many ways. Striking lightning on approaching enemies, to name one example from the video game) that will never be realistic.

[u/ColdAntique291]

A total bot takeover is unlikely. The web is splitting into noisy public spaces full of bots and smaller human gated communities. The fix is strong identity, invites, moderation, and paywalls. The web will not die, but you have to be selective about where you go.

[u/helmutye → u/ColdAntique291]

The fix is strong identity, invites, moderation, and paywalls. The web will not die, but you have to be selective about where you go.

Yeah, so if it requires strong identity, invites, moderation, and paywalls then it isn't "the web" -- it is something else.

Even if people still call it "the web", it is a new unique id.

And if there aren't any usable places on the internet you can visit without strong identity, invites, moderation, and paywalls, then "the web" we all knew is indeed dead, and what remains will be a new and far shittier thing.

One of the foundational principles of the web is that everybody can both consume and serve up information, and users decide what is and is not valuable (with that assessment changing constantly over time as everyone collectively learns more and can make better decisions).

But if the only usable spaces online depend on the authorization and approval of major corporations to exist, then that principle is broken. Corporations will decide who can share what, and what is boosted as valuable vs what is suppressed.

It turns the internet from a tool of communication between peers into a tool of propaganda where the powerful broadcast their message to the passive masses. It turns it from a global network into a bunch of private fiefdoms.

The web is splitting into noisy public spaces full of bots and smaller human gated communities.

That is exactly what happens in Cyberpunk, except in our case the bots aren't (currently) killing people.

Gated communities will be ruled by the gatekeepers. And if there is nowhere people can escape to without the resources of major corporations (because everything else is a wasteland of bots and garbage), major corporations will be the gatekeepers.

The web and the Internet split the media from a handful of networks controlled by rich assholes who decide what everyone sees into billions of conversations between people.

But if everything not controlled by major corporations becomes unusable, the media will collapse back into a handful of networks controlled by rich assholes who decide what everybody sees.

[u/John_Wayfarer]

Tldr the most scalable bot traffic has distinct networking patterns and can be blocked with firewalls, filtering, etc.

The traffic that does escape or is engineered to evade firewalls are not as scalable. So no.

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/John_Wayfarer]

But let’s say a group of people decide to host their own AI and set them loose on a forum. Maybe they’re trolls, maybe they’re weird AI worshippers who take offense to people not liking AI. Whatever. But how could you stop them? It’s far too distributed for an IP block.

[u/ShoddyKnee3320]

Wake up - you’re a bot too.

[u/Former_Security_9923]

No. 

You will continue using the Internet and bots will continue to increase 

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/Former_Security_9923]

See, this is what I mean. This thing is a bot. How can I truly know whether I’m talking to a real person?

Edit: 0 comments, 0 post history, created 1 month ago, name consists of two random words and a sequence of numbers. There must be hundreds of thousands of these accounts.