Dead Internet theory

The dead Internet theory is an online conspiracy theory that asserts that the Internet now consists mainly of bot activity and automatically generated content manipulated by algorithmic curation, minimising organic human activity to manipulate the population.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Proponents of the theory believe these bots were created intentionally to help manipulate algorithms and boost search results in order to manipulate consumers.^[5][6] Some proponents of the theory accuse government agencies of using bots to manipulate public perception.^[2][5] The date given for this "death" was generally around 2016 or 2017.^[2][7][8]

The dead Internet theory has gained traction because many of the observed phenomena are quantifiable, such as increased bot traffic, but the literature does not support the full theory.^[2][4][9] Caroline Busta, founder of the media platform New Models, was quoted in an article in The Atlantic calling much of the dead Internet theory a "paranoid fantasy", even if there are legitimate criticisms involving bot traffic and the integrity of the internet, but she said she does agree with the "overarching idea".^[2] In an article in The New Atlantis, Robert Mariani called the theory a mix between a genuine conspiracy theory and a creepypasta.^[5]

Origins and development

The dead Internet theory's exact origin is difficult to pinpoint, but it most likely emerged from 4chan or Wizardchan as a theoretical concept in the late 2010s or early 2020s.^[2] In 2021, a thread titled "Dead Internet Theory: Most Of The Internet Is Fake" was published on the forum Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe, marking the term's spread beyond these initial imageboards.^[2][10] But discussion and debate of the theory have been prevalent in online forums, technology conferences, and academic circles, possibly since earlier.^[2] It was inspired by concerns about the Internet's increasing complexity, dependence on fragile infrastructure, potential cyberattack vulnerabilities, and, most importantly, the exponential increase in artificial intelligence capabilities and use.^[11]

The theory gained traction in discussions among technology enthusiasts, researchers, and futurists who sought to explore the risks associated with our reliance on the Internet. The conspiracy theory has entered public culture through widespread coverage and has been discussed on various high-profile YouTube channels.^[2] It gained more mainstream attention with an article in The Atlantic titled "Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet 'Died' Five Years Ago".^[2] This article has been widely cited by other articles on the topic.^[12][10]

Claims

The dead Internet theory has two main components: that bots have displaced human activity on the Internet and that actors are employing these bots to manipulate the human population.^[13] The first part of this theory, that bots create much of the content on the internet and perhaps contribute more than organic human content, has been a concern for a while, with the original post by "IlluminatiPirate" citing the article "How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually" in New York magazine.^[2][14][13] The second half of the dead Internet theory builds on this observable phenomenon by proposing that the U.S. government, corporations, or other actors are intentionally employing these bots to manipulate the human population for a variety of reasons.^[2][13] In the original post, the idea that bots have displaced human content is described as the "setup", with the "thesis" of the theory itself focusing on the United States government being responsible for this, stating: "The U.S. government is engaging in an artificial intelligence powered gaslighting of the entire world population."^[2][5]

Evidence

Large language models

Main article: Large language model

Generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) are a class of large language models (LLMs) that employ artificial neural networks to produce human-like content.^[15][16] The first of these was developed by OpenAI.^[17] These models have created significant controversy. For example, Timothy Shoup of the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies has said, "in the scenario where GPT-3 'gets loose', the internet would be completely unrecognizable".^[18] He predicted that in such a scenario, 99% to 99.9% of content online might be AI-generated by 2025 to 2030.^[18] These predictions have been used as evidence for the dead internet theory.^[12] In 2024, Google reported that its search results were being inundated with websites that "feel like they were created for search engines instead of people."^[19] In correspondence with Gizmodo, a Google spokesperson acknowledged the role of generative AI in the rapid proliferation of such content and that it could displace more valuable human-made alternatives.^[20]

ChatGPT

Main article: ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot whose 2022 release to the general public led journalists to call the dead internet theory potentially more realistic than before.^[7][21] Before ChatGPT's release, the dead internet theory mostly emphasized government organizations, corporations, and tech-literate individuals. ChatGPT puts the power of AI in the hands of average internet users.^[7][21] This technology caused concern that the Internet would become filled with content created through the use of AI that would drown out organic human content.^[7][21][22]

2016 Imperva bot traffic report

Main article: Imperva

In 2016, the security firm Imperva released a report on bot traffic and found that bots were responsible for 52% of web traffic, the first time they had surpassed human traffic.^[23] This report has been used as evidence in reports on the dead Internet theory.^[2]

Reddit

 

An image posted on many subreddits as protest during the blackout.^[24]

Main articles: Reddit and 2023 Reddit API controversy

In the past, the social media site Reddit allowed free access to its API and data, which allowed users to employ third-party moderation apps and train AI in human interaction.^[22] Controversially, Reddit moved to charge for access to its user dataset. Companies training AI will likely continue to use this data for training future AI. As LLMs such as ChatGPT become available to the general public, they are increasingly being employed on Reddit by users and bot accounts.^[22] Professor Toby Walsh of the University of New South Wales said in an interview with Business Insider that training the next generation of AI on content created by previous generations could cause the content to suffer.^[22] University of South Florida professor John Licato compared this situation of AI-generated web content flooding Reddit to the dead Internet theory.^[22]

Twitter

Main articles: Twitter and Twitter under Elon Musk

"I hate texting" tweets

Several Twitter accounts started posting tweets starting with the phrase "I hate texting" followed by an alternative activity, such as "i hate texting i just want to hold ur hand", or "i hate texting just come live with me".^[2] These posts received tens of thousands of likes, and many suspected them to be bot accounts. Proponents of the dead internet theory have used these accounts as an example.^[2][10]

Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter

Main article: Acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk

The proportion of user accounts run by bots became a major issue during Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter.^{[25][26][27][28]} During this process, Musk disputed Twitter's claim that fewer than 5% of their monetizable daily active users (mDAU) were bots.^[25][29] During this dispute, Musk commissioned the company Cybra to estimate what percentage of Twitter accounts were bots, with one study estimating 13.7% and the second estimating 11%.^[25] These bot accounts are thought to be responsible for a disproportionate amount of the content generated. This incident has been pointed to by believers in the dead internet theory as evidence.^[30]

YouTube "The Inversion"

There is a market online for fake YouTube views to boost a video's credibility and reach broader audiences.^[31] At one point, fake views were so prevalent that some engineers were concerned YouTube's algorithm for detecting them would begin to treat the fake views as default and start misclassifying real ones.^[31][2] YouTube engineers coined the term "the Inversion" to describe this phenomenon.^[31][14] YouTube bots and the fear of "the Inversion" were cited as support for the dead internet theory in a thread on the internet forum Agora Road's Macintosh Cafe.^[2]

In popular culture

Discussion on Twitter

The dead internet theory has been discussed among users of the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Users have noted that bot activity has affected their experience.^[2]

Coverage on YouTube

Numerous YouTube channels and online communities, including the Linus Tech Tips forums, have covered the dead Internet theory, which has helped to advance the idea into mainstream discourse.^[2]

See also

• Algorithmic radicalization – Radicalization via social media algorithms
• Chinese room – Thought experiment on artificial intelligence by John Searle
• Content farm – Web site with a high volume of low-cost articles
• Deviancy amplification spiral – media hype phenomenonPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Echo chamber (media) – Situation that reinforces beliefs by repetition inside a closed system
• Ethics of artificial intelligence – Ethical issues specific to AI
• Filter bubble – Intellectual isolation involving search engines
• Generative artificial intelligence – AI system capable of generating content in response to prompts
• Infodemic – Portmanteau of "information" and "epidemic"
• Internet Research Agency – Russian company engaged in online propaganda
• Link rot – Phenomenon of URLs tending to cease functioning
• Roko's basilisk – AI thought experiment
• Social bot – Software agent that communicates on social media
• Social media intelligence – Tools for analyzing and synchronizing data from social media websites
• Spambot – Computer spam program (malware)
• Stochastic parrot – Term used in machine learning
• Technophobia – Fear or discomfort with advanced technology
• Turing test – Test of a machine's ability to imitate human intelligence
• Walled garden (technology) – System where a single company controls an entire ecosystemPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

References

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2. Tiffany, Kaitlyn (August 31, 2021). "Maybe You Missed It, but the Internet 'Died' Five Years Ago". The Atlantic. from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
3. Dao, Bridgit (2023). The Metaweb The Next Level of the Internet. CRC Press. ISBN 9781000960495. from the original on March 19, 2024. Retrieved March 1, 2024.
4. Vladisavljević, Radovan; Stojković, Predrag; Marković, Svetlana; Krstić, Tamara (2023). "New challenges of formulating a company's marketing strategy based on social network analysis". In Premović, Jelena (ed.). Challenges of modern economy and society through the prism of green economy and sustainable development. Educational and business center for development of human resources, management, and sustainable development. pp. 374–380. ISBN 978-86-81506-23-3.
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