Google and Microsoft's AI systems targeted the Textile-Contact website in search of knowledge
The tk.ua online store website experienced an abnormal surge in traffic due to more than 10 million daily requests from artificial intelligence systems, including OpenAI, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
According to Alexander Sokolovsky, founder of the “Textile-Contact” group of companies, several weeks ago, users of the tk.ua website began complaining about long delays when loading pages and placing orders.
Initially, the IT team suspected a hacker-led DDoS attack. However, traffic analysis later revealed that the site was being extensively scanned by artificial intelligence algorithms from OpenAI, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and other AI platforms.
Artificial intelligence platforms use the company’s knowledge bases to train their models. “Tekstil-Kontakt” has been producing expert content on textiles for 20 years and, 10 years ago, organized this content on its online store platform. Currently, AI bots make over 10 million requests per day (about 115 requests per second) and scan over 800,000 pages, even though only about 60,000 pages are open for standard search indexing.
It took two weeks to stabilize the resource’s operation. To ensure that restoring speed did not interfere with knowledge indexing, the company’s specialists restricted access for AI bots from regions with the highest parasitic load—China and parts of Asia. However, access for AI systems from Ukraine, Europe, and the Americas remained open.
Source: Oleksandr Sokolovskyi’s Facebook page.
New labeling rules for AI-generated content have taken effect in the EU.
The European Union has formed a new working group to monitor the activities of companies that develop and use artificial intelligence technologies. The new body will oversee compliance with AI regulations.
The EU is investing €10 billion in the development of artificial intelligence.
