Dead Internet: New Report Reveals AI Bots Have Taken Over The Internet And Surpassed Human Traffic

More than 95% of AI-driven traffic in 2025 was concentrated in three industries: retail and e-commerce, streaming and media, and travel and hospitality.

Today, Human Security, a cybersecurity firm, revealed in its detailed 2026 State of AI Traffic & Cyberthreat Benchmark Report that AI and bots have officially overtaken physical users and interactions.

The analysts wrote in their executive summary:

In 2025, the Human Defense Platform processed more than one quadrillion interactions across its global customer base. Our researchers analyzed that data to surface a fundamental shift in how the internet operates: automated traffic—all non-human internet traffic—is growing eight times faster than human traffic, AI-driven traffic—traffic generated by or on behalf of AI systems—is the fastest-growing category of internet traffic, and for the first time, AI systems are not just reading the web but transacting on it.

• Automated traffic grew 8x faster than human traffic, year over year.

• Monthly volumes of AI-driven traffic grew 187% from January to December 2025, nearly tripling over the calendar year.

• Traffic from AI agents and agentic browsers grew 7,851% year over year.

• More than 95% of AI-driven traffic in 2025 was concentrated in three industries: retail and e-commerce, streaming and media, and travel and hospitality.

• The median percentage of traffic attempting a scraping attack is approaching 20% globally in 2025, nearly double the rate in 2022.

• Post-login account compromise attempts more than quadrupled year over year, with HUMAN flagging an average of 402,000 per organization.

Stu Solomon, CEO of Human Security, told CNBC in a statement: “The internet as a whole was created with this very basic notion that there’s a human being on the other side of the computer screen, and that notion is very rapidly being replaced.”

“Machine-based traffic is effectively replacing humans as the dominant form of traffic on the other side of the internet,” Solomon added.

The researchers do acknowledge that there are limitations to their analysis and therefore some of their numbers might be a bit buffed. This increase in AI traffic and bots also doesn’t automatically assume something malicious either, the researchers say.

“This notion of machine bad, human good just is not realistic,” Solomon explained. “You have to live in a world where machines are acting on our behalf, and we have to establish a level of trust that’s persistent over time.”

Researchers for years have warned of something called the “Dead Internet Theory.”

The dead internet theory was posited years ago by netizens in forums who believe that the internet is quickly being replaced by bots, and is run and controlled by artificial intelligence. The theory further alleges that the internet died in 2016 and that what the world has now is really being run by the U.S. government, and basically everything people are encountering and interacting with is just AI-generated content.

But this “theory” is quickly becoming a fact, as the rate at which AI is taking over the internet and finding its way into everyday life and interactions is becoming harder to ignore — that is, if people even realize they are consuming AI-generated content and bot traffic.

This latest report adds to the body of evidence surrounding the concern.

Some analysts have said in the past in 2026 that roughly 90% of the internet would become AI and bot traffic and content.

Dead Internet Theory Confirmed: Over 50% Of Traffic In 2025 Was Artificial, 37% Of Comments Were Bots. Experts Predict 90% Of Content Will Be AI In 2026

Recently, WordPress — which manages over 43% of all the world’s websites — announced that it will AI agents to create, edit and share posts, and have other abilities.

Earlier this year, a social media platform for AI agents and bots to communicate and curate their own content called Moltbook was released. It was recently bought-out by Meta.

Dead Internet: New Reddit-Style Social Media Created For Millions Of AI Bots To Communicate With Each Other, As They Plot To Destroy Mankind And Create New Religions

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Proverbs 6:3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. [4] Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. [5] Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

It’s become a running joke and meme online in recent years that the internet 20 years ago was an escape from real life, and now people are getting off the internet and social media to escape from the digital ecosphere.

As far as I am concerned, for all intents and purposes, the internet is “dead.” Even the stuff that is “organic” and created by someone these days are manufactured lies, propaganda, staged events and acting, product placements and more. Actual truth is shadow-banned, buried, and de-platformed, and so all that is left is recycled garbage, lies and vanity where not even the interactions are real anymore.

Is Netanyahu Dead Or Is It An Elaborate AI Mindscrew?

Dead Internet Theory: YouTube Is Quietly Using AI To Alter Content Without Permission

With censorship rapidly getting worse, the move off of the internet is all the more necessary. That’s why I plan to start converting my works to physical paper books to preserve my works before their inevitable termination and coming internet reset that I believe is coming.

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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