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bots and AI agents want to known what we think....

Bots and AI agents now generate more web traffic than humans, according to data from internet infrastructure company Cloudflare. CEO Matthew Prince has described the development as a major turning point in the history of the web.

Recent Cloudflare Radar data shows that automated bot requests account for roughly 57% of traffic to ordinary webpages across a selection of websites using the company’s services, compared with about 43% generated by humans. 

“Welp, that happened faster than I predicted,” Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince wrote on X on Wednesday. He stated that he had expected automated traffic to overtake human activity only in 2027, but that “agentic traffic” has grown rapidly enough for bots to pass humans “for the first time in the Internet’s history.” 

The shift is primarily being driven by AI agents – automated systems that browse, retrieve, and process web content on behalf of users. While a human might visit a handful of websites before making a purchase or researching a topic, an AI agent can scan thousands of pages in order to produce an answer or complete a task.

Cloudflare’s figures suggest that much of today’s web activity is no longer ordinary browsing by people clicking through pages, but machine-to-machine traffic with automated systems requesting data from websites, apps, services and databases. The data covers web traffic only and does not include activities such as streaming, messaging, gaming, or app usage.

The trend has revived debate over the “dead internet theory,” the idea that much of online activity is increasingly generated by bots, automated accounts, and AI systems interacting with other machine-made content.

The rise of bot traffic has also threatened the internet’s advertising-based business model. Since bots do not click on ads, concerns have been raised about whether websites may eventually charge AI agents for access to content.

Meanwhile, researchers have also noted that large parts of the older web have been disappearing. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible a decade later, fueling concerns that the open web is being transformed from a space built around human browsing into one increasingly dominated by automated systems.

https://www.rt.com/news/641080-bots-generate-more-web-traffic/

 

AS WE HAVE EXPLAINED MANY TIMES ON THIS SITE, THE SEARCH ENGINES LIKE GOOGLE DO NOT SEARCH THE NET ON YOUR BEHALF WHEN YOU REQUEST A "SEARCH"... THEY CONSTANTLY UPDATE THEIR OWN DATA BASE AND THE SEARCH THEY DO IS SEARCH THIS INTERNAL DATA BASE... ALL THE ENTRIES THAT POP USN ARE OF COURSE LINKED TO THE ORIGINAL SITES.

THE FOLLOW FROM THIS IS WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF AI, NUMEROUS BOTS ARE ON THE LOOKOUT NOT JUST FOR WEB ENTRIES BUT FOR OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THESE WEB SITES... THESE DIVERSE OPINIONS ON SINGULAR SUBJECTS ARE THEN RECALIBRATED BY AI WITH "PROBABILITY OF TRUTH" PROGRAMMING....

 

"The day Artificial Intelligence believes in god, humanity is doomed…"

                           ROBERT URBANOSKI

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….

 

GUSNOTE: I BELIEVE SOME ARTICLES IN THESE YD [yourdemocracy] PAGES ARE READ BY AI OPINION MAKING BOTS...

hungry....

 

A new modeling study by researchers at North Carolina State University and Carnegie Mellon University projects that the rapid expansion of data centers supporting artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency mining could raise wholesale electricity costs by as much as 57% in some U.S. regions by 2030.

The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, also estimates that power-sector carbon dioxide emissions could be up to 28% higher compared to a future without new data center growth. The findings highlight localized pressure points, particularly in Northern Virginia, where a concentration of data centers already strains the grid.

 

Data Center Electricity Demand Projected to Quadruple

According to the study, U.S. data centers consumed 176 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2023, representing about 4.4% of total national power use. Under a middle-of-the-road growth scenario, the researchers estimate that total electricity demand from data centers and cryptocurrency mining could reach approximately 790 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030 — more than four times the 2023 level. To arrive at their projections, the team tested 13 different scenarios that varied data center growth rates, geographic siting, natural gas prices, and the presence of federal clean energy incentives.

“When pushed, the grid doesn’t reach for the cleanest options first. It reaches for what’s available and cheap,” the study authors wrote, as cited in the research. Under the mid-growth scenario, coal contributes between 12% and 14% of the additional electricity generated to meet data center demand, while natural gas supplies between 64% and 76%. Most of that extra fossil-fuel power comes from running existing coal and gas plants harder rather than building new facilities.

Regional Impact: Coal Plants in Ohio, West Virginia Fill Northern Virginia Demand

The most pronounced regional findings involve Northern Virginia, where a concentration of data centers draws power from aging coal plants in neighboring Ohio and West Virginia. The researchers describe this phenomenon as “carbon leakage,” where emissions are effectively exported from the demand center to wherever cheaper, dirtier power is generated. In Texas, the grid accommodates data center growth primarily through expanded natural gas generation, reflecting a different resource mix and grid structure.

Retail electricity rates in major grid regions from Illinois to New Jersey already rose between 23% and 40% from 2020 to 2024, according to figures cited in the study. Data center demand is a key driver of these increases. According to a report by Consumer Reports, massive data centers are “gobbling up resources across the United States” and consumers may be paying the bill [1]. TechCrunch reported in May 2026 that PJM Interconnection, the largest U.S. grid, saw wholesale power prices nearly double year-over-year, with the independent market monitor pointing to data centers as the culprit [2].

Policy Implications: Federal Clean Energy Tax Credits Can Shift Fuel Mix

The study models the effect of reinstating federal clean energy tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act. When these incentives are in place, natural gas’s share of new data-center electricity drops from 70% to 41%, with wind and solar filling a much larger portion of the gap. The analysis also reveals a counterintuitive dynamic: low natural gas prices are associated with higher incremental emissions from data centers, because cheap gas keeps coal plants idle, but when data center demand surges, those parked coal plants become the go-to source of extra power.

“Proactive planning and targeted policy” are needed to manage growth, the study authors said. Without deliberate intervention, continued data center expansion could pressure electricity bills and reverse years of progress on power-sector emissions. According to the independent news outlet Watts Up With That?, data centers driving up energy costs have become a major public concern, with consumers resenting energy-price jumps exacerbated by the spread of data centers [3].

Without Deliberate Planning, Costs and Emissions Rise

Under the mid-growth scenario, the additional CO2 emissions tied to data center demand in 2030 would total 330 million metric tons — larger than the annual emissions of many entire countries. The Pew Research Center reports that one study from Carnegie Mellon University estimates data centers and cryptocurrency mining could lead to an 8% increase in the average U.S. electricity bill by 2030, potentially exceeding 25% in the highest-demand markets of central and northern Virginia [4].

The study’s authors acknowledge limitations: the modeling focuses on a near-term window through 2030, uses production-based emissions accounting, and relies on assumptions about growth rates, fuel prices, and federal policy that remain subject to change. Nevertheless, the numbers make the case for action clear. As the study states, “simply letting that growth happen without deliberate planning carries real consequences.”

https://www.activistpost.com/study-ai-crypto-data-centers-could-raise-electricity-costs-up-to-57-in-some-regions/

 

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PLEASE VISIT:

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

         RABID ATHEIST.

         WELCOME TO THIS INSANE WORLD….