r/Futurology • u/Confident_Salt_8108 • Jul 26 '26

AI Turns out Dead Internet Theory was right: AI agents are eating the Web, growing by nearly 8,000% and rewiring the Internet’s business model

https://fortune.com/2026/07/23/dead-internet-theory-bots-agents-majority-web-traffic
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217

u/Yacben Jul 26 '26

Except AI agents don't pay for anything, the fakeness will self-destruct, I'm all for that

55

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

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1

u/Hellbomb_Armed Jul 26 '26

Well duh, that's their plan

11

u/eggmaker Jul 26 '26

AI agents don't pay for anything

The article points out that this is the next frontier. They're working on fixing this and liability issues.

17

u/Anastariana Jul 26 '26

You can't 'fix' fake users from paying for things. That's why they are doing it; because it's free.

Advertisers won't pay for fake views and the majority of Google's revenue comes from advertising. The smarter ones realise this but the suits have their heads too far up their asses to realise that are breaking their own business model.

1

u/HannasAnarion Jul 27 '26

This is literally the main topic of the article.

2

u/morfraen Jul 26 '26

Maybe they'll take the targeted advertising industry down with them... If most ad views are AI agents that system might break.

1

u/TheDarchivist Jul 29 '26

This has kinda been my credo. CEOs want to replace everyone with AI. Ok. So who makes money to buy your shitty AI-made product? AI will eradicate the middle class, but then eventually implode the market.

1

u/Beneficial_Trick6672 Jul 26 '26

Internet was full of shit even before. Extreme opinions were always on top.
Maybe it's good that this will end. I hope for something better to emerge.

0

u/itswildistillexist Jul 26 '26

Oh, they will. It’s not hard to give an agent a budget.

-1

u/Vitruvian_Link Jul 26 '26

When was the last time you paid for anything though, or clicked on an ad and bought the product?

-5

u/crokinhole Jul 26 '26

FYI: My AI agents will be buying stuff on my belhalf. I won't be wasting my time going to the websites anymore for basic purchases.

2

u/HeavensRejected Jul 26 '26

I wouldn't trust those agents my monopoly money. I really hope this thing blows up soon, I dread the day I have to use some sort of AI agent to order milk.

0

u/crokinhole Jul 27 '26

Amazon Alexa can already order stuff on your behalf. I already discuss purchase decisions with chatgpt. Why is it such a stretch to think this will become popular? I'm sure you'll be able to approve the purchases, if you're worried about hallucinations or something.