AI agents browsing the web trigger site blocks and ecosystem debate
What happened
In October 2026, MIT Technology Review's James O'Donnell reported that after personal AI agents such as OpenAI Dots and Meta Muse launched at scale, websites began blocking them. According to the report, Amazon has blocked Meta Muse's agent and is appealing over Perplexity's agent. The report also raises the possibility that making the internet friendlier for AI agents could make it worse for everyone else. The dispute currently centres on site blocks and platform litigation, with further developments still to be seen.
Written by AI from the reports · updated 1 h ago
Timeline
Follow the reports to see the event from each side.
- MIT Technology Review · AIMaking the internet better for AI agents might make it worse for everyone else
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Until recently, you could divide internet users into just two categories: bots and people.
Heat of this event
Not enough continuous observations yet to draw a trend.