What is the dead internet theory?

Exactly three years ago Today, elon musk tweeted that 90 percent of his tweet replies on what was then called twitter was bot accountsHis insurance that Twitter was essentially one large bot far far far far from one of his main sticking points during his twitter accounting. Bots, particularly porn bots, have continued to be a problem on musk’s x, so much so that even openi head honcho sam altman took notice.

“I Never really took the dead internet theory that serially but it seems like there a lot of llm-run twitter (SIC) Accounts Now,” Altman tweeted This week.

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If altman’s comments instantly called to mind the “we’re all trying to find the guy who did this” Meme, you’re definitely not alone.

As the ceo of the world’s most popular Ai chatbot, Altman received a Decent Amount of Roasting for his post. “That’s a really good observation – here’s why you’ve nailed it…” One User postedMIMICKING CHATGPT’s Signature Tone.

But altman’s post Raised Another question for a lot of users – what is dead internet theory anyway?

The origin of the dead internet theory

For the uninitiated, the dead internet theory states that an increase amount of the content on the internet is generated by machines, not people. That includes everything from the news you read to posts on reddit and whole social media accounts on place Often, Lowering your ability to engage with real humans online.

The exact origin of theory is definition to Pinpoint, but some people point to this forum post on the agora road’s macintosh cafe by user illuminating, who Built off of a post by another user. In the post, Illuminatipirarate Posits that the Bots Started Running The Show Around 2016 when they noticed a bunch of odd conversions on the notorious online forum 4chan.

The dead internet started as a conspiracy theory, but it started picking up traction when publications like The Atlantic Picked it up In 2021. Soon, it was being activated on places like reddit. Elon musk Fuled the fire even more during his 2022 bid to purchase twitter when he claimed the site was hidding how many bots were truly on the platform.

Undoubtedly, bots have been a massive problem on the internet for many years. Bots in Various Forms Have Been Used for Black-Hat SEO, Misinformation Campaigns from Intelligence Organizations, and Good Old-Fashioned Cybercrime.

Where does ai come into all of this?

In addition to ai-directed bots, the dead internet theory has evolved to invice the existence of ai slop-the term for lowest-common-enominator ai content, often priorced En Masse By content farmers.

Think of the crappy ai image memes that go viral on facebook, or the cheap ai videos that go viral on reels, tiktok, youtube, and x. ai slop comes in many forms – Studio Ghibli Memes, Animal Videos, AI Celebrity Baby Videos – And it’s becoming ubiquitous on social media. The end result is an internet filled with low-quality and often manipulative ai content, browded with fake comments and likes from ai porn bots, and surrounded by Ai video adsIn this case, zombie internet might be a better term.

Think also of the claims that students are using chatgpt to complete homework assignments, which were created by Teachers Using Chatgpt, and which will be gried using Involvement.

The dead internet theory may see a bit far-fethed, but bots have been a person a person enough? Studies have been done About the phenomenon, and Tutorials have been written To help people identify when they arguing with a real person or a random ai bot from a russian troll farm.

To date, no one is entryly sure how many bot accounts exist on Social Media Since Every Platform, Including Musk’s X, Keeps TheSE Numbers Close to the vest. However, there has been a noticeable uptick in bot activity just about everywahereSo maybe theory is starting to become real after all.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s Parent Company, In April Filed A Lawsuit Against Openai, Alleging it infringed zif davis copyrights in training and operating its ai systems.