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The rise of artificial intelligence in recent years, along with the surge in AI-generated online content, has given more credibility to a decades-old conspiracy theory known as the Dead Internet Theory. It holds that most of the content we encounter online isnt actually produced by living humans but by lifeless bots. AI is increasingly turning the once-fringe theory into a reality, but even today, at least one of the participantsthe living, breathing observer browsing the web on the other side of the screenis still usually a real, sentient being. Yet this may not be true for much longer. Thanks to AI systems increasing reliance on a technology known as headless browsing, artificial intelligence is becoming a primary consumer of the internet. And if that happens at scale, the internet will truly be a land of the unliving. Heres what you need to know about headless browsing, a term youll likely hear increasingly often in the years ahead. Headless browsing is nothing new Nearly every web browser youve ever usedwhether its Google Chrome, Apples Safari, or even Microsofts old Internet Exploreris a traditional visual browser. It features a graphical user interface (GUI), which includes buttons, tabs, scrollbars, and, of course, a large window that displays content (i.e., a website) that you can see. You navigate a visual browser mainly by clicking with your mouse cursor on hyperlinks or other buttons on a web page. If the web page requires you to enter text, such as in a form, you click in the text entry field and use the keyboard to type your characters. But for decades, another kind of browser has existed: the headless browser. A headless browser has no graphical user interface (GUI). It has no window that displays a webpage and does not support pointing and clicking with a mouse cursor. Instead, a headless browser processes a website’s content by reading its code directly. It interacts with the site, such as clicking on a link to go to the next page or entering text into a form, all through direct interaction with its code. Since humans are visual creatures, its clear why GUI browsers are the primary way most of the world accesses the internet. So then, what are headless browsers used for? Historically, they have been tools for web developers, as enterprise proxy provider Oxylabs explains. Because every graphical user interface element on a webpage has corresponding code, an automated program designed to help devs find errors on a website running through a headless browser can interact with that website just like a person wouldbut much faster since no visual interface needs to be displayed. The traditional benefit of headless browsers is that websites become more stable and reliable because headless browsing allows errors to be found relatively quickly. But human developers arent the only ones using headless browsers anymore. Headless browsing in the age of AI Once a tool for web developers and other programmers, headless browsers are now being employed by new userswho dont have heads at all. Increasingly, artificial intelligence systems are the primary users of headless browsers. AI browsers, such as Perplexitys Comet, use headless browsing to scan websites to carry out your prompts quickly. For example, when you prompt an AI browser for a list of the capitals of the 50 United States, the browsers AI will read the content of numerous websites via headless browsing to quickly retrieve the answer. But headless browsing goes beyond letting AI scan a website to retrieve information. As artificial intelligence systems evolve from being simple answer bots to becoming personal assistantsknown as AI agentsheadless browsing is also being utilized by these agents to interact with websites on your behalf, performing tasks like clicking links, checking boxes, or even adding items to your shopping cart. A large part of why an AI agent can perform tasks you prompt it to do so quickly is due to headless browsing. For example, say you prompt an AI browser to order the ingredients you need to make Thanksgiving dinner from multiple grocery websites. The browsers AI agent isnt actually perusing grocers websites through any visual interface and then clicking on Buy Now buttons to find and add items to your shopping cart. Its using headless browsing to read and interact with the websites code directly. But while headless browsing makes AI more efficient and versatile, theres a negative side to AIs use of it, particularly if youre a website or one of its advertisers. An internet where AI is the main user, not humans As more people turn to agentic AI and AI browsers, these AI systems will utilize headless browsing to visit websites and carry out tasks assigned by humans. This means that AI has the potential to be the primary type of user that is visiting a website. And there are already signs of this happening. A report from the AI monetization platform TollBit last month showed that, for the most recent quarter, human traffic to the websites that TollBit monitored declined by 9.4%, while AI traffic continued to rise. And its rising a lot. In the first quarter, TollBit found that 1 out of every 200 visitors to the sites it monitors was AI. By the second quarter, AI visitors accounted for 1 out of every 50 visitors. Thats a fourfold increase in less than a year. TollBits report goes on to note that when AI agents visit a website, the website often has no way to tell that it’s an AI and not a human being. Thats terrible news for companies, which rely on web advertising to pay the bills. Advertisers sell things to human beings, and if advertisers can no longer trust whether a website knows precisely how many actual people are visiting it, they likely arent going to spend their limited ad dollars on that site. For what its worth, an executive at an unnamed large digital publisher told Digiday that they believed headless browsing does not currently pose a major issue for publishers. However, they noted that if big players in the AI space, such as OpenAI or Google, adopt the technology for their AI agents, headless browsing could become a significant concern. And if headless browsing does become the norm, it also means that the Dead Internet Theory could take on an expanded meaning. No longer would the phrase be used to signify only an internet where human beings do not make the majority of the contentbut where the majority of the browsing is no longer done by humans either.
Category:
E-Commerce
Synchrony’s CEO, Brian Doubles, shares with Stephanie Mehta how a mindset of productive paranoia fosters a workplace where curiosity, collaboration, and creativity drives real change.
Category:
E-Commerce
Companies ask job applicants for references all the time. Its a way to verify a potential hires history and skills, vet their candidacy, and assess character and cultural fit. So why cant the same thing be done in reversewhere you can ask past employees to assess the company youre applying to? Sure, theres Glassdoor. But short of salty ex-employees publicly dragging old employers on social mediaa relatively uncommon move, considering its deemed unprofessional and may result in legal retaliationthere are no real formalized processes to run references on a company youre applying to. A recent Reddit post presented the argument: Jobs be asking me for 3 references and I think I might start doing the same, it read. Let me talk to three happy employees please. The logic is simple: When booking a restaurant for date night, most double check the reviews for other diners’ experiences before making a reservation. Before pulling the trigger on a big purchase, many will scour the web for recommendations and product reviews, to ensure they are getting a good deal. Why shouldnt the same be available for job seekers? Well, some in the Reddit thread say theyve already put this into practice, in their own ways. When I get an offer, I always ask to come talk to the people who would be my peers/reports (since you usually already talk to the superiors in the interview), one Reddit user commented. Do people not normally do that? Another added: I did that for my last job. Got some actual good feedback and decided not to take it. But as some pointed out, current employees may not be the most helpful barometer. Dont speak to the happy ones, speak to the honest ones, one wrote. Or, perhaps candidates could see a stack of resignations with the reason for leaving highlighted, another suggested. After all, Glassdoor reviews exist for a reason. Currently, this sort of reverse reference check doesnt really exist, probably because of the mountain of potential legal issues around defamation. Companies could take retaliatory action against former employees who speak ill of them. (Besides, even the traditional model of companies asking candidates for references has come under more scrutiny and criticism in recent years.) But potential consequences aside, social media platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn have also become fair game for disgruntled ex-employees to publicly air their grievances. Some have even gone so far to film their exit interviews, published for the world (and potential future employees) to see. With company issues like culture rot, quiet cracking, and toxic workplaces putting off potential hires, the once-hidden realities of workplace culture are now being shared in the open. This shift in transparency could return some of the power to employees. Yet, at the same time, job openings are down, while the number of unemployed professionals are rising. Employees are being encouraged to cling onto jobs, even if they no longer enjoy the work. So those with offers on the table might be tempted to seize any available opportunity with both handsregardless if a reverse reference would produce red flags. For now, the next time you’re applying for a job, ask your hiring manager how many times this specific position has been vacant and filled. If its already cycled through three hires in the past year . . . it might be worth a quick stalk on LinkedIn to check if anyone knows something you dont.
Category:
E-Commerce
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