Dead Internet Theory: A.I. Killed the Internet

Generative A.I is the nuclear bomb of the Information Age. If the Internet doesn’t feel as creative or fun or interesting as you remember it, you’re not alone. The so-called ‘Dead Internet Theory’ explains why. The rise of artificially generated content killed the internet. How did this happen? Why? And… Is it still possible to stop it? Follow Taylor here: @TaylorLorenz

00:00 Intro
01:50 Dead Internet Theory
11:41 Unforeseen Consequences

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[ecsodikas]

4:15 Googles search algorithm feels already magnitudes worse than it was a year ago.

[lb]

Algorithms ruined my internet experience. I used to be able to discover so many wonderful ideas and webpages and creators. Now it’s like I see the same 15 things and nothing else. A ceiling has been imposed on my curiosity and access to others based on what websites think they can advertise to me and I hate it.

[AceSpadeThePikachu]

The ultimate irony is that almost every single ad that played on this video was from some website or software shilling A.I.

[Sythemn]

Google worrying that their search engine WILL BECOME useless shows how little self awareness they have. SEO and them ignoring their own search rules broke Google years ago.

[maconthesticks]

I've been saying this for years. The internet is nowhere near as fun and magical as it used to be. Once ad revenue became a thing the entire system went down the toilet. Greed kills everything.

[robertmills]

I recently learned social media companies are showing you custom conment sections based on how you engage. You cant even see honest discussion anymore. Truly horrific.

[tangydiesel]

At what point do shareholders say, "If 99.9% of traffic is non-human, why are we spending money on adds/servers/power/tech support?" and they stop investing into it.

[MultiUsernamesucks]

The best thing to do if you are worried about the Dead Internet is go to a play, a concert or a comedy show, see real people. The live entertainment industry has been dying, but if enough people start going back to the theatre or arenas then new programming can be created to cater to the younger generations.

Supporting young artists is where the grunge scene of the 90s came from, just as an example.

[Kubose]

Someone needs to hurry up and create the Blackwall already, i dont want to have to sift through internet fake stuff for the rest of my life.

[AlKaseltzer]

It's funny because I remember having so much fun on the Internet in the early 2000s as a kid, games, interesting things, fun stuff to read, for the last 10 years, I've found myself visiting the same three websites over and over because I can't find anything new, YouTube being one of them. The Internet is empty, sterile, it feels like walking through an empty city that used to be full of people, it feels liminal. YouTube feels that way too.

[MrEscape]

A.R.I.A. seemed suspiciously silent this whole video.

[malachipyle]

This is why the library of congress and physical media are so important to protect. We may lose the internet because we decide to shut it down cause there is nothing there anymore.

[Dantheus]

It started dying the moment search engines started optimising with clicks as a metric. All the random, interesting stuff got filtered out. A page of someone's poetry, a geocities profile, a witchcraft blog, and what you were looking for would all show up. You could choose to explore. Instead, we are funnelled.

[nerdynautilus]

“Do you remember the time before the internet?” Will become “Do you remember the time when the internet was real?”

[TheMDHoover]

Bots talking to bots, with bot algorithms determining what bot content ends up in the other bots feed.

[nrsca]

I remember using the internet in 2000-2005 it was SO vibrant, engaging, full of people having discussions on forums and message boards.

I'm not talking about weird reddit threads of arguing people and politics. back then it was mostly music and games and stuff. It was a pure joy to log onto the internet in those days.

[Rogue-a-Pogue]

It's strange to think how the internet was the 'wild west' of culture and how it's become more like 'Westworld' now.

[loganwilliamsbluecheck]

All I can hear throughout this entire video is doctor ian malcolm stating "you were so busy seeing if you could do it that you didn't stop to ask if you should"

[Cruznick]

I understand that this video is specifically about the way generative AI has impacted the content of the internet and how we interact with the web as a whole. But I want to add the sheer waste of resources that is happening in the mad-dash to cram "AI" into absolutely everything. Google's new searches with AI suggestions take approximately 20x the energy to run as the old non-AI versions. There's also the absolutely mind-boggling amount of *water* being wasted for such processes.

We don't NEED "AI" shoved into Every. Single. Thing. It is a waste of resources.

[SuperflyMN]

It's scary how in a few years the internet might become completely unusable.