Did the Internet die in 2016? Has an online community that thinks so

I have two words for you: Shrimp Jesus. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's the infamous AI -generated Facebook picture of shrimp Jesus and other variations floating online. That picture first appeared in March 2024 and seemed to be a meme at first glance. However, shrimp Jesus was the point of jumping for Facebook's artistic slope. These consist of new-generated memes that occupy the Internet, such as Colach horse, 386-year-old grandmother who bakes her own birthday cake And Random wooden carsJust to name a few. You may think these are just memes, but these pictures repeat discussions about the old online plot, called the dead theory on the Internet, which began in 2021.

As someone who writes about the internet for living, this was the first time I hear about this idea, and the research took me into a hole without rabbits that I fought to appear. But if you often use Tiktok, Instagram or Facebook, maybe unwilling to see examples on the Internet that repeat this premise. What is the theory of the dead internet and how is the growth of artificial intelligence in parallel?

What is the dead theory of the Internet?

The theory of the dead internet first appeared in 2021 on online forums, 4chan and Wizardchan. People came out on these forums claiming that the Internet died in 2016 and that AI bots mainly guide the content we now see online. This theory also supports the possibility of AI used to manipulate the public for a much larger and wicked agenda. These articles were separated together in a long thread and were published on another online forum called Agora Road Cafe McIntosh. Be aware, the thread can be easily accessed online, but I did not connect with it because of the indecent language in the post.

The User Illuminat wrote: “The Internet feels empty and deprived of people. It is also deprived of content.”

Now, years later, this plot again sees the light of day with the rise of Tiktok creators who dissolve the theory and find examples to support it. One creator, with a username of Sidemonoma, reported A. Video In March 2024, showing examples of various Facebook accounts that post variations of images generated by Jesus' ass. These images provide little traffic online, but they can still easily multiply your food. Like many other internet creators, Sidemoneytom repeated the same sentiment: These Facebook accounts are run by AI bots and create all the content. Better to understand this theory, Helps to know how General AI works.

Generative use of AI Artificial intelligence Systems that produce new content in the form of stories, pictures, videos, music and even software code. According to coins“General AI uses learning algorithms and training data to generate a new, credible content that man passes.” With the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, Chatbots These days they have become anger, with tech giants like Google, Apple and META Creating tools for your products. (Disclosure: Zif Davis, a Center's parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against Openai, owner of ChatGPT, claiming to have violated Ziff Davis' copyright in training and working with his AI systems.)

Now, back to the shrimp Jesus. If you feed specific data and stimulates of chatbot, you will find that these images are “human to pass”. Emphasis on “passing”. The content created by chatbots is certainly having its own mistakes.

“While major pre -trained systems, such as LLM (models of large languages), have made impressive achievements in their reasoning capabilities, more research is needed to guarantee the correctness and depth of reasoning,” experts wrote in the AI ​​report. Association for the Promotion of Artificial Intelligence.

However, shrimp Jesus and other paintings generated by AI are not the only things used by believers on the Internet to confirm this theory.

Are these bots or real people?

If you spend enough time on social media, you will see unusual things in the comments section of certain articles, such as repetitive comments from accounts that are not important to the post. These comments are often weird and make no sense. Last winter, the “Blue” subscribers took to Reddit to complain that they were tormented by a response to bots who were politely and disturbing.

One user He marked the usual signs to notice these responsible bots and what to do when you meet them. Some indications you experience are when the account is new and there are many answers to different inscriptions, as seen from this bless Answer the bot account.

According to the IMAVVA 2024 report on bad botAlmost half of all internet traffic comes from bots in 2023, an increase of 2% of the previous year. That report also points out that the rapid adoption of General AI and other LLM has increased simple bots.

AI's growth has accelerated in recent years, but also fears and concerns over these changes. According to recent data from the Pew Research CenterAI experts have been more likely than Americans to believe that AI will positively affect the United States in the next 20 years. Data show that over 47% of experts are excited to use AI daily, compared to 11% of the public. The same report also points out that over 51% of adults in the United States are concerned about the growth of the AS since 2021.

Regarding the increased concern about whether the Internet is dead, Sofie hvitvedTechnological futurist and older advisor at the Institute for Future Studies in Copenhagen believes the Internet is not dead, but is developing.

“I think the internet, as it seems now, will die, but it has been dying for a long time, in that sense,” Hvitved said.

“It turns into something else and breaks down into a new job, so we have to understand how to make new solutions and better algorithms … which makes it better and more relevant to us as people.”

In 2024, a Newsguard Audit Report He found that generative AI tools were used to spread Russian propaganda in over 3.6 million articles. Newsguard also revealed that AI's shots are used to create false narratives online from the Russian Disinformation News page. Until that point, Hvitved noted that these problems arising from AI do not indicate that the Internet is dead, but instead forces us to deal with how we can improve these AI tools.

“Since there are large models of languages ​​and you know, AI is fed with all the information it can collect, it can start with LLM pollution and pollute data, which is a huge problem,” Hvitved said.

What does the online community think?

The theory of the dead internet does not die any time soon, there is no intention of punishing. Internet discourse about this theory is not limited to the Tiktok community, but also found a home of More threads of Reddit.

A Reddit user wrote: “Ai -The talks will be disastrous for the mental health of so many people.”

Another released, “Given that we are just at the beginning of AI, especially his video capabilities, I would say there is a real chance that he will destroy the usefulness of the internet and make it dead.”

Other people echo the same feeling by adding that the ratio of AI content to human content will change dramatically over the next few years.

One even made up List of over 130 examples of Subradite topics On the internet, which consisted of comments and inscriptions generated by AI bots.

Can AI shape a new digital culture on the Internet?

One question that is after the theory of dead internet is whether AI will completely replace human content. If so, how will this form of internet culture shape?

Hvitved is also head of media at the Copenhagen Institute for future studies and specializes in examining the relationship between new technologies such as AI and their impact on communication. It has taken the future of new internet culture as the use of AI increases.

“The static element of the Internet may die. So we have articles, static pages and web pages that you have to move, but is it the death of the Internet? I don't think so.”

It believes that this new culture on the Internet can mean more relevant content for broadband users.

“That kind of contextual internet, knowledge graphs, real -time resumes and interactive microforms, it's something these (AI) agents can go out and choose to create something specialized for you.”

This new internet culture will emphasize AI's ability to customize unique content for each user and can mean leaving the concept of shared spaces and communities.

“We have to pay attention to the echo -chambers or dive into your little worlds that only you would understand. We will have no more common reality,” Hvitved said.

So is the internet really dead?

If you've watched movies like Terminator, Blade Runner or Wall-E, you know there has always been a fascination with robots and whether they will take the world one day. The resurrection of dead internet theory is just the latest proof of that current discourse. It can be argued that AI shaping a new culture on the Internet would mean death on the Internet, as we know it. But this does not mean that the Internet will only disappear. To resonate what expert expert Sophie Hvitved, the Internet, can eventually develop into something new. With the rapid growth of AI in our daily lives, there is no doubt that this transforms the digital landscape. But is the internet dead? As a broadband writer who works with numerous valuable CNET writers every day, I can testify that he is alive.

Frequently Asked Questions for Dead Internet Theory