DEAD INTERNET Theory: did AI & bots kill the internet 8 years ago?

Head to to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code thelinuxexperiment Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: # 👏 SUPPORT THE CHANNEL: Get access to: - a Daily Linux News show - a weekly patroncast for more personal thoughts - polls on the next topics I cover, - your name in the credits YouTube: @thelinuxexp/join Patreon: Or, you can donate whatever you want: Liberapay: 👕 GET TLE MERCH Support the channel AND get cool new gear: 🎙️ LINUX AND OPEN SOURCE NEWS PODCAST: Listen to the latest Linux and open source news, with more in depth coverage, and ad-free! 🏆 FOLLOW ME ELSEWHERE: Website: Mastodon: @thelinuxEXP Pixelfed: PeerTube: Discord: #AI #bots #aitechnology #internet Timecodes: 00:00 Intro 00:51 Sponsor: Squarespace 00:55 Dead Internet Theory 05:38 Bot invasion 09:52 Rise of AI content 12:02 Algorithms: the root of the problem 14:28 Is the Internet actually dead? 16:13 Sponsor: Tuxedo Computers 17:14 Support the channel The gist of it is that the internet has apparently now been completely taken over by artificial intelligence, and is now completely empty and devoid of real human people, they even called it “entirely sterile“. They go as far as saying that all the human generated content, like youtube videos is, in fact, AI generated. The people subscribing to this theory go even further, they think this is helped by a group of influencers who are working for the government, in order to manipulate our thoughts and get us to buy stuff. To justify this theory, they use a few things here and there, like the fact that there are so many accounts that just post the same type of stuff. They also say that deepfakes are proof that everything is AI generated. Bots aren’t inherently bad, they can just be tools, like something that displays the score for a sportsball game, or a bot that will save a message for you, or a bot that generates a haiku in a reddit post. But bots are also generally just used to spread crap and scams, and misinformation. They’re here to appeal to people, get a like or two by people who like the profile pic, I guess, and thus build legitimacy for the bot account, so it can then start spamming other videos with scams and URLS. Which is where we can actually go back to the dead internet theory: yes, some of these bots are created to influence people’s opinions on things. Just like TV channels always did, just like real humans always did in podcasts, videos, talk shows, and articles. Has it gotten worse? yes, it has. AI isn’t just used to power bots, it’s also used by bots and humans to post stuff. It is the ultimate form of clickbait, one that takes 0 effort to make, looks real enough to get a quick like from people who are just scrolling with their eyes empty as they sit on their porcelain throne. This is just mimicking things that tend to go viral, but with automation. You might be wondering: this is really crap content, no one should like this and want to watch it, or engage with it at all. Except, as I said, people who scroll over this in passing tend not to notice, and so people drop a courtesy like, or simply don’t report the account. And since all platforms make use of algorithms to show you things they think you’ll like, instead of things you’re actually following or that you’re subscribed to, this crap is shared again and again. But that’s because of money, not because of a government backed, AI driven agenda. If you show people more stuff, they spend more time on your platform, they see more ads, and the platform makes more money. And in the process, influencers with little ethics will notice that, and make their own posts more clickbaity so they can get a bigger share of that revenue.