The BaseEssayMIT Technology Review
Making the internet better for AI agents might make it worse for everyone else
In The Algorithm newsletter, James O'Donnell argues that changing the web to suit AI agents could degrade it for people. The excerpt notes that users were long split into bots and people, and that websites have allowed bots automated tasks under rules. Only the opening was available.
Why it matters
The same thing, for different readers.
What it means for you
MIT Technology Review's newsletter warns that making websites friendlier to AI agents could make them worse for ordinary people.
The question it raises
If the internet is rebuilt for software acting on people's behalf, whose needs does the web serve, and who decides?
The record
- Questions
- How is AI changing childhood, health and daily life? · How fast is AI advancing, and where is it heading?
- People
- James O'Donnell (Wrote it)
- What we read
- We have read only the description the publisher gives. No quotations until someone reads the source itself.
- Found by
- The Radar, run of October 20, 2026, via
mit-technology-review-ai(tier 2: a major outlet’s own reporting) - Cite this
- MIT Technology Review, “Making the internet better for AI agents might make it worse for everyone else”, October 19, 2026. Entry in the Ctrl AI Base, https://ctrlai.com/base/mit-tech-review-2026-10-19-internet-ai-agents-worse
Our notesLight lane: excerpt cut off early; the specific harms argued are not known and the summary rests on the headline.