Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says 'much of the internet is now dead'

""You all prove the point that so much of the internet is now dead," he told the hosts. Ohanian said that much of the internet was "botted" or "quasi-AI," referencing the proliferation of "LinkedIn slop." The Reddit cofounder referenced "dead internet theory," which asserts that there is more bot activity than human activity on the web. In September, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that he "never took the dead internet theory that seriously," but that now he sees "a lot of LLM-run twitter accounts.""

"Ohanian said that the internet needed to be the opposite of dead, with "live viewers and live content." He said that holding attention required "proof of life." "I think we'll see a next generation of social media emerge that's verifiably human, because it's all going down in the group chats now," he said. Group chats have boomed in recent years. That's not just via text; users are also turning to apps like Signal and Discord for a human-to-human connection. In 2024, some frequent group chatters told Business Insider that they'd started sharing their thoughts there instead of on Twitter."

The internet has become less human, with large portions populated by bot-driven or AI-generated content. The dead internet theory claims bot activity may now outnumber human activity online. Observers note increased presence of LLM-driven accounts on platforms like Twitter. Demand for live viewers, live content, and proof of life is rising. Group chats on Signal, Discord, and text have surged as users seek human-to-human connection. Some users now prefer sharing thoughts in private group chats rather than public social platforms. AI tools are being used to generate and edit messages even within group conversations, complicating verifiability.

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