June 2, 2026
Feed me, bot daddy
RSS is back. AI agents are reading it
Turns out the internet’s ‘dead’ old feed never died — and fans are feeling smug
TLDR: RSS, the simple web feed system many thought died years ago, is suddenly useful again because AI tools prefer predictable updates over social media chaos. Commenters are split between victory-lap superfans, annoyed users with feed complaints, and skeptics warning bots will gobble up writers’ work without credit.
Plot twist: the internet tool everyone held a funeral for is suddenly the main character again. The article argues that RSS — the old-school system that sends you a clean list of new posts from websites — never actually died after Google Reader shut down in 2013. Humans drifted away because social apps offered a slot-machine style stream of surprises. But AI tools? They don’t want chaos. They want a boring, reliable list. And that, apparently, is where RSS is having its revenge arc.
The comments are full of victory laps from longtime users. One person basically said, “I never stopped,” while another bragged about following nearly 40 feeds just to avoid ads and junk they never asked to see. The smug energy is off the charts: for these users, RSS isn’t a comeback story, it’s a “you all were distracted” story. Another commenter called it “smart marketing,” saying the real magic is structure — especially now that AI needs simple, predictable updates instead of being shoved around by social media algorithms.
But not everyone is cheering. One grump pointed out that RSS can be annoying because some sites only offer a short slice of older posts, which makes catching up on a new blog feel weirdly random. And then came the spiciest fear of all: if AI starts gulping down feeds, will writers just get their work slurped up and reposted by bots with no credit? So yes, RSS is back — but the comments section has already turned it into a battle between open internet romantics, annoyed power users, and people side-eyeing the coming bot buffet.
Key Points
- •The article says RSS was wrongly considered dead after Google shut down Reader in 2013.
- •The article argues that AI agents need deterministic, structured, and openly accessible content feeds, which RSS provides.
- •It contrasts RSS with social platform APIs, describing APIs as less consistent and more restricted for programmatic access.
- •The article cites podcasting as evidence of RSS's continuing relevance, stating major podcast apps still use RSS feeds.
- •It concludes that written content for language models, monitoring agents, and summarization tools is well suited to RSS-based distribution.