The Dead-Internet Theory Is Back
Five years ago, people who hang out in the stranger corners of the web started arguing that the internet was mostly fake. It had been this way since about 2016, they said, when Google introduced its artificial neural network for machine translation. Supposedly, from that point forward, online interactions began to be replaced, until nearly every message and picture had been posted by a bot. Everywhere you looked, websites were “empty and devoid of people,” as one scholar of the theory put it.
TL;DR
- The "Dead Internet" theory, initially circulating on the web's fringes, posits that bots have replaced humans online since around 2016.
- Mainstream adoption of AI, particularly chatbots, is increasing, with many adults using them daily and AI integrations appearing in messaging apps.
- The use of AI for generating messages, cover letters, and website filler is becoming common, raising questions about its impact on human interaction.
- People are actively trying to identify AI-generated content online, from dating profiles to videos, and are concerned about AI's role in personal communications.
- Users express anxiety over AI's ability to mimic human communication, leading to distrust and a sense of betrayal when AI is used in personal relationships.
- While some find AI useful for efficiency, others believe it detracts from genuine connection and the "experiential" nature of relationships.
- Research suggests that people are developing mental models to detect AI content, but these models are likely to become obsolete as AI evolves.