Half of the internet is bots and they’re feeding you lies

A recent report from cybersecurity company Imperva claims that more than half of all internet traffic now comes from non-human sources, or bots.

That stat is worthy of discussion on its own, but I want you to focus on another one: over a third of all internet traffic is now bad bots—malicious automated actors.

What are these bad actors doing online? Disinformation and defamation campaigns, targeting businesses and governments with ‘irregular warfare’ to manipulate markets and elections.

“Bad actors are weaponizing AI faster than governments and enterprises are using AI to combat it.”

We’ve all known for some time that was happening, right? Anyone who goes online has seen a bot posting garbage, and the government regularly tracks the impact of these tools on our democratic process. 

But are we really aware of the scale of the issue? And do we know what bots are after?

This week, we talk to Connor Ross, co-founder and president of Calgary-based Koat.ai, which provides real-time intelligence monitoring for businesses and governments. Founded in 2021, the early-stage company already has a Big Six bank on its client list.

Koat.ai claims its technology can decipher real and fake account activity online within 10 seconds of a post being made. This is super cool tech, which we dig into on the podcast, but again, it is not where I hope you place the majority of your attention. 

On this episode, Ross explains how the rise in malicious bots is being driven by AI, and how bad actors have weaponized AI faster than governments and enterprises can combat it. He also explains why the global social media platforms, which are aware of the scale of the issue, aren’t really doing anything to stop it.

Perhaps more importantly, Ross explains what these bad actors are after and how they go about achieving it. 

You see, it’s not about a bunch of fake accounts posting garbage to the internet; it’s about fake accounts posting garbage to the internet that real people consume, amplify, and act on. And according to Ross, this approach is very effective, and very dangerous.

So half of the internet is bots, and they’re feeding you lies. What do we do about it?

Let’s dig in.

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The BetaKit Podcast is edited by Darian MacDonald. Feature image courtesy Igor Omilaev via Unsplash.