The increase in scraping by AI companies leads to more automated internet traffic AI tools.
According to a new report from multicloud company F5 Inc., bots generate more than half of all page requests for web content. This is due to an increase in scraping by AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. They are thus collecting data to make AI models smarter.
The report, based on 207 billion transactions between November 2023 and September 2024, shows that large language models are scouring websites for data such as product information and prices. They obtain this after bypassing security measures.
Not All Bots Are Bad, but Nearly Half Are
Of the 21.22 billion interactions, nearly half were estimated to be malicious. Additionally, 22 percent of bot traffic is focused on search queries and 21.5 percent on adding products to digital shopping carts. This occurs with bots trying to purchase popular items (such as concert tickets or limited edition sneakers).
Travel Sector Is the Big Victim
Not every sector is equally affected by bots. Hospitality (hotels, travel platforms) was hit most often (44.6%), followed by healthcare (32.6%) and e-commerce companies (22.7%). In the technology sector, a third of all login attempts were found to be attempts to use stolen passwords on different accounts.
Mobile traffic is not safe either: entertainment companies saw the most bot attacks via mobile apps.
Although bot traffic is generally increasing, F5 sees that in many sectors there is a noticeable decrease in automated activities compared to 2023. Modern bot controls are beginning to have the desired effect, writes SiliconANGLE.