TZUTC: -0500   
   MSGID: 2111.consprcy@1:2320/105 2deb69a2   
   PID: Synchronet 3.21a-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.28-Linux master/123f2d28a Jul 12 2025 GCC 12.2.0   
   BBSID: CAPCITY2   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   FORMAT: flowed   
   AI bot web traffic is closing in on human usage, experts warn   
      
   By Craig Hale published yesterday   
      
   Human traffic is dwindling as AI takes over   
      
       AI bots and scrapers could soon overtake human users on the internet   
       Publishers are battling with dwindling click-through rates   
       robots.txt instructions are largely being ignored   
      
   New data has claimed AI bots are rapidly taking over web traffic, with Tollbit   
   information showing there was a new AI bot visit for every 31 human visits in   
   the final months of 2025, up from 1:200 at the start of 2025.  At the same   
   time, and with humans interacting more directly with AI, human visits fell by   
   around 5% between Q3 and Q4 2025.   
      
   And it's clear human AI usage is responsible for this shift - while training   
   crawls fell by around 15% between Q2 and Q4 2025, RAG bots rose around 33% and   
   AI search indexers rose around 59%.   
      
   The way we're accessing the Internet is fundamentally changing   
      
   OpenAI leads the way in terms of scraping - its RAG bot 'ChatGPT-User' was   
   around five times more active than the second-most active bot by Meta, and   
   around 16x higher than Perplexity's agent.   
      
   In terms of user behavior, a separate survey cited in the report found more   
   than one-third (37%) of active AI users now start searches with artificial   
   intelligence (like ChatGPT or Gemini) rather than traditional search.   
      
   More alarmingly, the analysis found that robots.txt, a set of instructions to   
   tell automated bots which parts of the page they can and cannot crawl, was   
   ignored around 30% of the time on average, and up to 42% of the time by   
   ChatGPT-User.  With robots.txt unenforceable and totally reliant on goodwill,   
   the instructions have been deemed effectively obsolete.   
      
   And that's not the only bad news for publishers, who are struggling on the   
   traffic front. Sites without direct AI licensing deals saw click-through rates   
   (CTR) drop around 3x between Q2 and Q4 2025. Even those with AI licensing deals   
   aren't immune, with CTR rates also dropping.   
      
   With all of this at play, Tollbit calls for regulators to step in to establish   
   acceptable AI patterns and protect intellectual property.  But with AI going   
   nowhere, it's clear that the internet is undergoing a major shift and website   
   owners should prepare for AI bots to become their primary readers.   
      
      
   https://www.techradar.com/pro/ai-bot-web-traffic-is-closing-in-on-human-usage-e   
   xperts-warn   
      
   $$   
   --- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux   
    * Origin: Capitol City Online (1:2320/105)   
   SEEN-BY: 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/14 305 153/7715 154/110 218/700   
   SEEN-BY: 226/30 227/114 229/110 134 206 300 307 317 400 426 428 470   
   SEEN-BY: 229/664 700 705 266/512 291/111 320/219 322/757 342/200 396/45   
   SEEN-BY: 460/58 633/280 712/848 902/26 2320/0 105 304 3634/12 5075/35   
   PATH: 2320/105 229/426