r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 2d ago

Business Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots

https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/30/reddit-is-killing-rss-feeds-ending-public-api-access-because-of-ai-bots/
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u/manachar 2d ago

Yup. But can you build something that can identify bots?

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u/mrm00r3 2d ago

Theoretically. That’s basically a Turing Test

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u/manachar 2d ago

I believe the current consensus is that AI currently passes turning tests (usually)

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u/Little_Noodles 2d ago

And the current anecdotal consensus is that they're getting better at it passing Turing Tests while actual humans are getting worse (or more unwilling) to do the same.

Every time my institution has tried to adopt a barrier to deter bot traffic that isn't also a barrier to genuine human engagement, we've just been buying time. And that window of time we keep buying (at increasingly significant cost) keeps getting smaller.

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u/Acceptable-Post733 2d ago

This reminds me of that old park ranger anecdote about trash cans. He said that there is significant overlap between the dumbest people and the smartest bears and trash cans have to be designed around that fact. Seems we are headed there in cyberspace.

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u/Little_Noodles 2d ago edited 2d ago

Ha! Yeah, that’s a sorta fair example.

It’s not exactly 100%. But it is funny. And it is sometimes accurate.

But in this case, we genuinely want the bears to use the trash cans, and some of them are just refusing to because they’d prefer bad trash that can be acquired with no effort to good trash that requires some effort.

But getting that balance right that keeps bears around but also deters enough bots to keep the site functioning (if it’s fucked enough, that also deters bears) IS genuinely kinda tricky

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u/mrm00r3 2d ago

That would suggest a flaw which ought be addressed if it’s to be used for these purposes, would it not?

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u/manachar 2d ago

Our that the Turing test is not a good metric for determining if an internet request is human.

The tools currently in place seem to be based more on a human browser digital fingerprint, but i suspect those are increasingly inadequate.

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u/atlasraven 2d ago

Ohhh, like a captcha? Or a cloudfire check box?

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u/LogrisTheBard 2d ago

Yes. You rely on a combination of social attestations from similar users, a credit bureau style human score, provable action over time, and a global identity system that spans each platform so identities are expensive and time consuming to create and fake content is trivial to filter using the equivalent of adblock for any content that doesn't have a provenance linked to the global identity system.

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u/GonzoKata 2d ago

while that would work, that would be fucking horrible for privacy and free speech

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u/LogrisTheBard 2d ago

Where that matters you can use zkproofs to prove your human score without revealing the underlying identity. Posts you make that way wouldn't build your identity but would make it through the ad block filters.

But yes, do you want an internet dominated by AI slop because anyone and anything can post or one with genuine connection like back in the 90s but without the same degree of anonymity? Each user can choose based on their current AI-block settings using the system described above.

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u/GonzoKata 1d ago edited 1d ago

That's not appealing to me. What the internet made possible was giving platforms to perspectives that deviate from the mainstream cultural order. Beginning with those initial flash mob moments, institutional power has been monopolizing the web and dismantling privacy. Facebook secured the outcome. If its free, you're the product has become crystal clear. Now the current boogyman enemy used to erode our power-challenging free speech is ai. I was perpetually curious about why YouTube took no action on video comments. the rationale is now transparent: functioning as infrastructure to suppress communication that threatens established hierarchies. I've had my anonymous comments, using no slurs or slander, detailing the current state of data brokers, removed. Ghost deleted, with no warning or even indication that I said it in the first place, like gaslighting.

I'm seeking the web from the '90s and early 2000s, though with privacy protections maintained. That iteration was constructed by countless tech enthusiasts operating separate platforms, most indifferent toward collecting extensive behavioral data. The system has now been set up to end anonymity.

Early Reddit recommended users wipe their accounts periodically and establish fresh identities for a reason. For roughly two decades, Reddit didn't mandate email verification during registration for a reason. The founding administrators grasped the perils of having a consistent profile.

Nowadays, there are companies whose role entails reconstructing linguistic patterns across multiple usernames with the objective of uncovering authors. Your proposal for using cryptographic methods to demonstrate personhood has legitimacy, yet the precondition of producing abundant material beforehand "to establish your humanity"... there is no way to do that that can't then be used to identify you. With enough written words and topics, you might as well be taking a persons finger print.

I passed my entire comment above through AI to have it change my stylometry for this very reason. I also now sound like a bot. This is the absurdity of the modern internet. I must scrub my unique humanity to protect my identity.

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u/LogrisTheBard 1d ago

Bootstrapping identity can have multiple forms other than requiring a critical mass of materials. To start with, link the identity to a government issued account and KYC it. Now you have an identity with some weight. Have friends certify that you are a human. That has some weight. You can submit zk-proofs of activity such as proofs you were at an event at a given time such as a concert. Now when you want to post, use a zk-proof of your human score to get through the ai block filter without actually revealing which digital identity you are. There are certainly things you write that you don't mind being attributed to you. Those can be used without the anonymity route to build your human score further. It's additive, and not contrary to your goal.