Whenever you perform a Google search, ask ChatGPT a question, or shop on Amazon, you’re interacting with a bot—software designed to execute automated tasks. In today’s digital age, bots are an integral part of daily life. In fact, a 2023 report from cybersecurity firm Imperva revealed that bots made up 49.6% of all internet traffic.
Similar to bacteria in the human body, some bots perform valuable and necessary roles. For example, Googlebot indexes websites to improve search engine results, chatbots provide answers and draft emails, and transaction bots handle credit card verification for online purchases. However, despite these beneficial bots, the majority of bot activity online is harmful. According to Imperva, “bad” bots constituted 32% of internet traffic in 2023, compared to just 17.6% for “good” bots.
Malicious bots engage in various disruptive and illegal activities, such as scraping data from websites without consent or committing fraud and theft. Scalper bots purchase high-demand items to resell them at inflated prices, while cybercriminals use advanced bots for credit card fraud and unauthorized access to accounts.
Even when their actions aren’t illegal, spam bots cause significant annoyance by flooding social media platforms with unsolicited ads or backlinks. In 2022, Elon Musk threatened to abandon his acquisition of Twitter (now X), accusing the company of failing to disclose accurate data about bot prevalence. Although he eventually completed the purchase, the platform remains plagued by bots, despite Musk’s vow to eliminate them.
For advertisers, knowing how many X users are real people versus bots is crucial, as ad revenue depends on reaching genuine users. The exact percentage of bots on the platform remains uncertain, but anecdotal experiences suggest their widespread presence. For instance, after creating new accounts, the author was inundated with “fake” followers—profiles clearly identifiable as bots, often featuring randomized usernames, generic female pictures, and no meaningful activity.
The motivations behind these fake followers are not always clear. Some users, including businesses, public figures, and entertainers, purchase bots to inflate their online influence. Bots also play a growing role in politics, where campaigns and foreign entities deploy them to steer online conversations and amplify specific narratives.
A study by Michael Rossetti and Tauhid Zaman examined bot activity on X during the first impeachment proceedings of former President Donald Trump (December 2019–January 2020). It found that bots, representing just 1% of users, were responsible for over 30% of posts related to the impeachment.
Bots are also driving a surge in low-quality, machine-generated content across the internet. Research by Originality.ai, an AI and plagiarism detection service, observed a 189% rise in AI-generated LinkedIn posts after ChatGPT’s release in late 2022. By October 2024, 54% of all long-form posts on LinkedIn were likely AI-created. Similarly, AI tools that generate images from text commands have led to a proliferation of bizarre and misleading visuals on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
This growing presence of bots and AI-generated content has sparked debates about the authenticity of the internet. The “dead internet theory,” which gained traction in the late 2010s, suggests that much of the internet has become artificial—dominated by bots and algorithms instead of real people. Proponents argue that many aspects of online life, from content to personalities, may be fabricated by software, including claims that some YouTube creators are actually AI-generated “deepfakes.” While these ideas are speculative, the rapid evolution of AI tools raises concerns about a future where the internet could be overrun by low-value, machine-made content.
In 2011, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen famously stated that “software is eating the world.” Today, it seems that automated software is consuming the internet itself. Bots—both beneficial and harmful—now account for half of all internet activity, shaping economic and social dynamics in significant ways. As bots continue to influence our digital lives, it’s worth considering the cost to human autonomy.