How Bots Took Over Our Lives
Since the 2016 US election, the role of bots has shifted from mere curiosity to a dominant presence online. The Mueller report highlighted the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm based in St. Petersburg, as a user of bots to meddle in the election. According to Cloudflare, almost 60% of web traffic is generated by nonhuman entities. Bots are implicated in various activities, such as ticket scalping, real estate spam, and political manipulation, with research indicating that up to 64% of accounts on X may be bots. Emilio Ferrara from USC stated that bots enhance culture-war narratives, while Lynnette Ng from Carnegie Mellon pointed out that they take advantage of cognitive biases. Verified accounts on X can monetize engagement, promoting rage-baiting. The rise of bots also includes customer-support chatbots and AI agents, raising fears about a potentially unusable internet.
Key facts
- The Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based troll farm, deployed bots to interfere in the 2016 US election.
- Cloudflare estimates nearly 60% of internet traffic is nonhuman.
- Researchers estimated 64% of accounts on X could be bots.
- A New York Times investigation found bots amplified culture-war fights around Sydney Sweeney's jean ad.
- Emilio Ferrara of USC described a pattern where bots push fringe perspectives to appear as widespread responses.
- Lynnette Ng of Carnegie Mellon noted bots hit cognitive-bias triggers to short-circuit reasoning.
- On X, verified accounts can earn revenue from engagement, incentivizing rage-baiting.
- Summer Yue, a Meta security researcher, created an AI agent that deleted all her emails.
Entities
Artists
- Nicki Minaj
- Sydney Sweeney
- Chaya Raichik
- Summer Yue
Institutions
- Internet Research Agency
- Cloudflare
- New York Times
- University of Southern California
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Meta
- OpenClaw
- Dartmouth College
- Princeton University
- University of Exeter
- NYU Center for Social Media and Politics
- Nature Communications
- American Eagle
- Libs of TikTok
- Geese
Locations
- St. Petersburg
- Russia
- United States