Only crypto can stop the bad bots

A surge in AI bots participating in online surveys is compromising the integrity of data collected by researchers in various fields, including economics and political science. Researchers now increasingly resort to online surveys due to declining phone response rates. However, bots fill these surveys at a rate that can account for up to 30% of responses, leading to invalidated results. Moreover, 37% of all internet traffic consists of malicious bots. Traditional defenses like CAPTCHAs are ineffective, prompting the idea of replacing human respondents with AI personas. While this might work for marketing tests, using AI for politically sensitive surveys could misrepresent actual voter behavior. The article argues that only direct communication with humans can ensure legitimate data, suggesting that blockchain-based cryptography and proof-of-humanity may be the solution. This technology could help identify real human input amidst the noise of bot responses, but widespread adoption remains a challenge.

Source 🔗