"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, creator of the most popular AI chatbot on Earth, says he's starting to worry that "dead internet theory" is coming true. "I never took the dead internet theory that seriously," Altman in his typical all-lowercase style, "but it seems like there are really a lot of LLM-run twitter accounts now." (LLM meaning large language model, the tech which powers AI chatbots.) He was resoundingly mocked."
"The "dead internet theory" is a half-prophetic conspiracy that suggests that effectively the entire internet has been taken over by AI models and other autonomous machines. The vast majority of the posts and profiles you see, the theory holds, are just bots. In fact, you're barely interacting with humans at all - everything you access online is just a machine-maintained illusion, almost like "The Matrix.""
"It's an incredibly solipsistic conceit that at its most extreme is dumb creepypasta fodder, and has become a bit of an ironic joke. But it contains a kernel of truth that does get at a mounting anxiety at how fake and corporate the world wide web has become. And it's undeniable that the deluge of AI models, bots, and the they generate are a large part of that."
Recent public remarks noted a growing number of LLM-run social media accounts and concern that 'dead internet theory' may be becoming true. Dead internet theory posits that most online posts and profiles are produced by AI models and autonomous machines, leaving very few genuine human interactions. Observers responded with mockery and memes, including a Tim Robinson hot-dog-suit image and ChatGPT-parody replies. The theory is largely solipsistic and creepypasta-like at extremes, but it reflects anxieties about a fake, corporate web and the flood of AI-generated content. Large language models and bots now produce a significant portion of online content and imitation of human writing, fueling concerns about authenticity.
Read at Futurism
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