Death By A Million Scrapes: What Publishers Face With The Rapid Increase In AI Scraping

Last week, I wrote about the citation and attribution issues that plague AI chatbots and haunt publishers.

If the rapid, continued growth of scraping is any indication, publishers have a few bulletpoint items to add to their nuanced concerns.

In its State of the Bots Q4 2024 report, Tollbit found that AI scrapes per site doubled from what they were in Q3, with scrapes per page tripling in that time, including 40% more unauthorized scrapes.

 

Most Americans Say They Are Tuned In To News About The Trump Administration

Far fewer are hearing about the administration’s relationship with the media than was the case early in Trump’s first term.

 

Traffic To U.S. Retail Websites From Generative AI Sources Jumps 1,200 Percent

During the holiday shopping season, Adobe observed the first material surge in generative AI traffic to U.S. retail sites (measured by shoppers clicking on a link). Between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,300 percent compared to the year prior (generative AI traffic was up 1,950 percent YoY on Cyber Monday). The trend has persisted beyond the holiday season. In February 2025, traffic from generative AI sources increased by 1,200 percent compared to July 2024.

 

Getting To Know AI: Consumers Are More Trusting, Are Using It More

People are more trusting of AI — at least moderately so. For instance, 43% of consumers now say they would trust the information given to them by an AI chatbot compared to 40% last year, according to the 2025 Consumer Adoption of AI Report, a multi-market study conducted by Attest.