The Dead Internet Theory
Photo by Cash Macanaya on Unsplash
AI technology and development is a prevalent topic among our conversations concerning its usage and the reasons behind its development. What seems to have started out as fun little image generators like Dall-E or websites like thispersondoesnotexist.com, seems to have become something that is paving the way for rampant misinformation, the loss of jobs centered around creative fields, and overall, a truly dystopian future that we seem to be headed for if people in charge of big industries decide to fully lean into AI for various avenues of their business (like Duolingo recently has, to much backlash from its users and others, which you can read about here https://thenewstack.io/duolingo-grapples-with-its-ai-first-promise-before-angry-social-mob/) Last year in October, a YouTube creator I’ve been following for a multitude of years now named Mutahar, or Some Ordinary Gamers, created a video titled, “The Internet Is Slowly Dying… And We’re Killing It…” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rdbsUHwRmc&ab_channel=SomeOrdinaryGamers) In which he discusses a little topic called the Dead Internet Theory. This was my first exposure to the topic and it led me to look a little deeper into the topic. Now, when you hear the word “theory” in any sentence, your mind may conjure up conspiracy theorists who claim the Earth is flat, that the moon landing was fake, or any other sensationalized topic that they want to poke holes into to suit their own perception of our reality. However, upon learning about this topic more in depth, I came to the conclusion that this isn’t a theory anymore. This is actively happening in our internet spaces, and I’m sure a lot of you are aware of it.
What is the Dead Internet Theory? Essentially, the theory claims that the internet will slowly lose its human touch in favor of AI bots who not only engage with the content we see online, but create it too. It’s a theory about an internet that isn’t for the people anymore but instead for bots, and unfortunately, that theory seems to have come true in recent years. From AI chatbots for people to create and talk to, to people using AI to create the content itself, it truly does feel that the internet is slowly becoming a place that isn’t solely for people and connection.
How does Generative AI work? Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create content based on learned patterns from existing data. In simple terms, we feed the AI databases, either willingly or not, with our information (writing, art, video, etc) and it creates something by using the information it’s been fed to create something else by request of people’s prompts. Most commonly seen right now are the AI image generators, originally by means of Dall E, people were creating meme images with the program. (Example below.) Since the program was nowhere near perfect, people found amusement in the deformed characters doing seemingly random things.
With the creation of ChatGPT came some downfalls. People worried about it’s usage around students, and there were definitely people also concerned about creative fields being dominated by AI as well as companies relying on AI more heavily for things like writing and making art. But it seems that AI has already infiltrated the web in a multitude of ways. One of the ways is through Facebook, which has become a cesspool of AI generated Jesus Christ photos and a lot of people commenting “amen” under it. No, really.
NBC News published an article, “Facebook users say 'amen' to bizarre AI-generated images of Jesus” uses this as an example of of the AI slop found on the site.
It also delves into the topic of AI accounts on Facebook; accounts with little information and not many photos of themselves that comment seemingly very similar things under these sorts of posts. It’s possible that those who make the photo and the post themselves could also be the ones making these AI accounts in order to farm their own engagement, but that’s up for debate.
This is the best way I can illustrate the dead internet theory. People may still be in charge of writing these AI programs, sure, but the end result is an internet space that is devoid of genuine human life and interaction. An article from Vice titled, “‘Dead Internet Theory’ Is Back Thanks to All of That AI Slop” said it best here, “(But) the dead internet theory goes even further,” the experts added. “Many of the accounts that engage with such content also appear to be managed by artificial intelligence agents. This creates a vicious cycle of artificial engagement, one that has no clear agenda and no longer involves humans at all.” We are looking at an internet that is soulless, one that does not bring people together but brings bots together instead. Our heavy reliance on AI has become problematic, every other day I hear about people on Twitter (or X, I guess) who utilize the AI bot Grok only as someone to back up their claims or “fact check” things they read instead of doing their own research and getting multiple sides of the story or topic. Grok is a whole mess in and of itself, where it’s seemingly been trained on some rather strange things, like seemingly denying the Holocaust and . This article titled “Musk’s AI bot Grok blames ‘programming error’ for its Holocaust denial” on the Guardian claims, “Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has blamed a “programming error” to explain why it said it was “skeptical” of the historical consensus that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, days after the AI came under fire for bombarding users with the far-right conspiracy theory of “white genocide” in South Africa.” And, “When asked about amplifying the discredited claim, Grok said its “creators at xAI” had instructed it to “address the topic of ‘white genocide’ specifically in the context of South Africa … as they viewed it as racially motivated”.
So, we have AI bots being programmed to regurgitate conspiracy theories and, most importantly, programmed to follow a very specific agenda. To me, this isn’t artificial intelligence at all. And I don’t really think any of it is. It’s just programs that can be changed and manipulated based on the data it’s been fed. It’s not intelligence, it's a puppet on a string made out of stolen words, art and ideas, and it’s often being used for the profit of others, in one way or another.
The role of technology in media is shifting online. We began the internet as a tool, a way for people to communicate with one another, build websites for self promotion or entertainment or personal use, and it’s become a place for only the biggest websites to get traction, and a place where these big websites are now being infested by AI bots, either for promoting scams or simply rage-baiting people in order to garner interactions on a post. So… How do we fix this? I think there should be strict regulations on the usage of AI in our modern society and the internet. Especially in places outside of the internet, as with new video generators like Google Gemini’s Veo 3, I have no doubt in my mind that some scummy organizations may try to cut costs on hiring people for acting or filming or writing things like commercials and god forbid shows, just to use some uncanny AI generated people. There doesn’t seem to be a clear way to fix the issue of AI running rampant online as of right now, but maybe some legislation will pass at some point to regulate the usage of it online.
Yang, Angela. “Facebook Users Say “Amen” to Bizarre AI-Generated Images of Jesus.” Nbcnews.com, NBC News, 19 Mar. 2024, www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna143965 . Accessed 18 May 2025.
Renzella, Jake, and Vlada Rozova. “The “Dead Internet Theory” Makes Eerie Claims about an AI-Run Web. The Truth Is More Sinister.” UNSW Sites, 21 May 2024, www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2024/05/-the-dead-internet-theory-makes-eerie-claims-about-an-ai-run-web-the-truth-is-more-sinister.
Placido, Dani Di. “The Dead Internet Theory, Explained.” Forbes, 16 Jan. 2024, www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2024/01/16/the-dead-internet-theory-explained/.
Sammi Caramela. ““Dead Internet Theory” Is Back Thanks to All of That AI Slop.” VICE, Feb. 2025, www.vice.com/en/article/dead-internet-theory-is-back-thanks-to-all-of-that-ai-slop/.
