Has AI erased human voices? Dead Internet Theory explained

What if AI has already taken over the internet's organic content, and the human connection we once knew no longer exists? If you have ever felt strange wandering the internet, as if everything you see is not 'human', then the 'Dead Internet Theory' may provide you with some insight.

The dead internet theory basically suggests that the internet has been completely overtaken by Artificial Intelligence over human-generated content, from bot comments and bot accounts, to artificially generated content entirely. The timing of this "death" is said to have occurred around 2016 to 2017, just a few years before the rise in popularity of AI usage.

These AI-generated channels and bots can rapidly create content to farm engagement on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, X, and more. You have probably seen it yourself. Ever seen a strange AI-generated image of an animal with a ridiculously large amount of likes on social media? If so, you may have encountered an example of the dead internet theory right before your very eyes.

But how did this phenomenon come to be, and why?

Of course, with the increase in AI usage, many people have found a faster, more convenient way of producing content for social media with zero effort. This leads to more engagement, and of course, more money.

From ridiculous AI-generated stories that make no sense, to bot comments that are even more confusing, this cycle has led to internet users coining the term 'AI Slop', referring to low-effort media generated by AI almost similar to spam.

Over time, organic human content has seemingly been overthrown by said bots. People find it easier to depend on AI to produce work and earn quick cash, even down to texting and communicating with others that also happen to be bots. Many users have theorised why such a change and 'death' has occurred to our once human-run internet.

Could this perhaps be propaganda? Some theorists believe this so-called 'death' is a way to manipulate people on social media through a sneaky form of censorship. With the millions of broken links, AI spam and more, the theory suggests that this may be another way to limit users to curated content, perhaps to push propaganda about world events and more.

At a time where misinformation spreads like wildfire, many people may use this to their advantage to confuse and distort true information about certain events through AI-generated videos, images and bots to increase engagement for said ideas.

With reports from 2022 claiming that almost half of the internet traffic was done by bots, could this truly be the case?

Though social media organisations have worked to dust away the pesky bots that have found their way all over the internet, most users on platforms such as X now have to bypass a paywall if they wish to scroll through their favourite apps without the spam of artificial comments and posts. But not everybody is so willing to give away their cash for a few seconds of bot-free scrolling on social media.

As of now, the dead internet theory is, well, just a theory. After all, not every interaction you encounter on the internet is fake, and certainly not the ones you have with family, friends, and loved ones. Nevertheless, it definitely opens up conversations regarding the rise in generative AI and our dependence on it, especially regarding the internet and social media.

What is true is that the internet we once knew no longer exists. The simple and limited communications and functions of back then have now advanced at an uncontrollable rate, serving as a reminder to all of us to be wary of everything we see online.