I helped build the internet's ad economy. Now I want to save it

"If you've noticed that the internet feels different lately-more cluttered, harder to navigate-you're not imagining it. The system is breaking down in real time, and by 2026, researchers predict that 90% of web content will be AI-generated. Quality journalism is disappearing behind paywalls while feeds fill with noise designed purely to capture attention. An innovation that was supposed to democratize information is now drowning us in it."

"You are now the product Here's what happened: instead of paying for what you have actually read or watched, the advertising system turned you into the product. Every click, search, and scroll got auctioned to the highest bidder. You became the currency. And once the dollars followed your data rather than content quality, the value of real information slipped into the background."

"The effects are everywhere. News organizations are consolidating rapidly or shuttering entirely. AI-generated slop is creeping into YouTube and other online communities, and flooding search results with spam. Trust in the media and the online ecosystem is on the brink of collapse. Shoes chase you around the internet, misinformation spreads faster than facts, and billions vanish to fraud. It feels like the end. But I've seen this before."

Researchers predict that 90% of web content will be AI-generated by 2026. Quality journalism is disappearing behind paywalls while feeds fill with noise engineered to capture attention. The advertising system monetizes user behavior by auctioning clicks, searches, and scrolls, effectively turning users into the product and shifting dollars from content quality to data. AI-generated low-quality content and spam are flooding platforms and search results, undermining trust and enabling massive fraud. The digital advertising engine that funded newsrooms and niche creators is stalling. The internet has repeatedly broken and been rebuilt before, moving from static pages to user-generated platforms and then evolving again.

Read at Fast Company