Dead Internet Theory: A.I. Killed the Internet

Summary

The video script discusses the alarming implications of generative AI, like Chat GPT, on the internet's vitality. It suggests that AI-driven content has led to a 'Dead Internet' era, where human creativity is overshadowed by synthetic media. The script raises concerns about misinformation, the authenticity of digital interactions, and the potential for AI to manipulate public opinion and societal norms, highlighting the urgent need for regulation and ethical considerations in AI development.

Takeaways

• 🌐 The release of Chat GP4 by Open AI is a significant event, potentially impacting over a billion users.
• 💡 There's a growing concern about the ethical implications of social media and AI, with some fearing they erode human interaction and cause societal harm.
• 🔮 The 'Dead Internet' conspiracy theory posits that the internet died around 2016 due to AI bots subverting culture, a theory that seems more plausible with the rise of generative AI.
• 🤖 Bots are responsible for a significant portion of web traffic, with implications for digital authenticity and the potential for malicious activity.
• 📈 Generative AI like Chat GPT is advancing rapidly, creating a landscape where AI and human interactions blur, leading to concerns about the authenticity of online content.
• 🎭 AI-generated content is becoming pervasive, from poetry to music videos, raising questions about the value and authenticity of 'art' created by machines.
• 🚫 The use of AI to impersonate celebrities, such as Scarlett Johansson, without consent highlights the legal and ethical challenges of synthetic media.
• 🌍 The internet is becoming a darker place filled with bots and deep fakes, prompting people to retreat to more controlled environments like Discord and Slack.
• 🛑 The rapid advancement of generative AI poses an epistemological threat, making it difficult to discern truth and trust in media, which could undermine democratic processes.
• 🚨 Disinformation campaigns and deep fake content are being used to manipulate public opinion, influence politics, and contribute to fraud, indicating a need for better regulation and detection technology.
• ⏳ The pace of generative AI development and its adoption is outstripping regulatory efforts, leading to a potential future where AI-generated content is the norm, with significant societal implications.

Q & A

What is the significance of the new version of Chat GP4 mentioned in the video?

Chat GP4 is a significant update to an AI model that aims to provide a new experience to over a billion users, indicating a major advancement in AI technology and its widespread adoption.

What does the term 'soul searching' in the context of social media businesses imply?

The term 'soul searching' suggests a deep introspection and reevaluation of the ethical and societal impacts of social media businesses, especially in how they influence human behavior and interactions.

Why does the speaker express guilt and fear regarding the development of AI?

The speaker feels guilt and fear because they believe that the AI technology they helped build could potentially cause significant harm to the world by eroding the core foundations of human interaction and behavior.

What is the 'Dead Internet Conspiracy Theory' and when did it allegedly start?

The 'Dead Internet Conspiracy Theory' posits that the internet died around 2016, with claims that the US government is using AI-powered bots to manipulate global culture towards nefarious ends, effectively subverting the original purpose and feel of the internet.

How has the internet changed according to the speaker?

The speaker suggests that the internet has become less human, with AI bots generating a significant portion of content, leading to a loss of authenticity and a sense of emptiness in the digital space.

What percentage of web traffic is attributed to bots according to the Imperva report mentioned in the video?

The Imperva report found that bots were responsible for over half of all web traffic, indicating a substantial non-human presence on the internet.

What is the term 'inversion' used by YouTube engineers to describe?

The term 'inversion' is used to describe the point at which fake views or engagements on platforms like YouTube would surpass real ones, highlighting the growing influence of AI-generated content.

How does the speaker view the release of algorithmic feeds as a watershed moment?

The speaker views the release of algorithmic feeds as a critical turning point that led to the optimization of content in absurd ways, resulting in a flood of worthless content across the internet.

What are the potential dangers of a dead internet filled with AI-generated content?

A dead internet filled with AI-generated content can lead to misinformation, manipulation of public opinion, political unrest, financial market disruptions, and a general loss of trust in media and institutions.

What is the role of generative AI like Chat GP4 in the current state of the internet?

Generative AI like Chat GP4 is seen as a catalyst for the creation of synthetic media that can emulate human creativity at an unprecedented scale, potentially leading to a landscape dominated by AI-generated content and a loss of human presence.

How does the speaker suggest we address the challenges posed by generative AI and the changing nature of the internet?

The speaker suggests that rapid, large-scale government regulation may be necessary to combat the influence of generative AI, although it acknowledges the difficulty of fighting against the massive economic incentives driving the technology.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 The Emergence of AI and the 'Dead Internet' Theory

This paragraph introduces the concept of a new AI model, chat GPT, and its potential impact on society. It discusses the ethical concerns of AI development, with a focus on the fear that it could cause significant harm to the world. The speaker, Rocky, expresses guilt over contributing to the creation of a platform that may erode human interaction. The paragraph also delves into the 'Dead Internet' conspiracy theory, which suggests that the internet has been subverted by AI bots, leading to a cultural shift towards nefarious ends. The theory posits that the US government is engaging in AI-powered gaslighting of the global population, and that the internet has become a hollow shell of its former self, filled with AI-generated content that has surpassed real human interaction.

05:04

🤖 AI Infiltration and the Loss of Human Creativity

The second paragraph explores the pervasive influence of AI in various digital spaces, including social media, where bots have infiltrated and are generating content that is indistinguishable from human creations. It discusses the availability of AI-generated poetry, films, podcasts, and news, highlighting the blurring lines between AI and human interaction. The paragraph also addresses the economic incentives driving the integration of generative AI into businesses, leading to an increase in synthetic media that is difficult to regulate. The speaker warns of the potential for AI to completely replace human creativity and the existential threat this poses to the authenticity of online content, suggesting that the internet as we knew it is dying, replaced by a landscape dominated by AI and synthetic interactions.

10:04

📉 The Decay of the Internet and the Rise of Disinformation

This paragraph delves into the consequences of losing the human element of the internet to AI bots and synthetic media. It discusses the epistemological threat posed by the flood of information, which can lead to a decrease in public trust and engagement in democratic processes. The speaker highlights the dangers of disinformation campaigns and deep fake content, which can manipulate public opinion and influence political outcomes. The paragraph also touches on the challenges of regulating generative AI and the need for new technologies to identify bots and deep fakes. It suggests that the internet has become a dangerous place, where the original vision of connecting the world has been distorted by the unchecked release of powerful AI technologies.

15:05

🚫 The Call for Regulation and the Future of the Internet

The final paragraph calls for reflection on the trajectory of the internet and the role of generative AI in shaping its future. It emphasizes the need for rapid, large-scale government regulation to combat the overwhelming economic incentives driving the development of AI technologies. The speaker likens generative AI to the nuclear bomb of the information age, a powerful tool that has changed the world without public consent and with significant potential for harm. The paragraph concludes with a warning about the potential historical delineation created by generative AI and the death of the human version of the internet, urging consideration of the systems we will need to navigate the future digital landscape.

Keywords

💡Chat GP4

Chat GP4 refers to the latest version of a chatbot model, presumably a successor to earlier models like Chat GPT. It is significant in the video's narrative as it represents the advancement of AI technology and its potential impact on society. The script mentions that this new model will be available to over a billion users, indicating its widespread reach and influence.

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence is a broad concept that encompasses machine learning, deep learning, and other algorithms that enable computers to perform tasks typically requiring human intelligence. In the video, AI is portrayed as a double-edged sword, capable of both enhancing and undermining human society. The script discusses AI's role in creating bots, influencing culture, and potentially eroding human interaction.

💡Dead Internet Theory

The Dead Internet Theory is a conspiracy theory suggesting that the internet as we knew it died around 2016, replaced by an AI-driven, manipulated version. The video uses this theory to discuss the pervasive influence of AI bots and the potential loss of genuine human interaction and creativity on the internet. It is a central theme that frames the discussion on the current state and future of the internet.

💡Generative AI

Generative AI refers to AI systems that can create new content, such as text, images, or music, that is not simply a replication of existing data. The video highlights generative AI's ability to produce synthetic media, which can mimic human creativity and potentially overwhelm the internet with AI-generated content, leading to a loss of authenticity and human connection.

💡Algorithmic Feeds

Algorithmic feeds are content streams curated by algorithms to show users personalized content based on their behavior and preferences. The video criticizes algorithmic feeds for driving the internet towards optimization and away from meaningful content, contributing to the decay of the internet as a platform for genuine human interaction.

💡Bots

Bots in the context of the video are AI-driven programs that perform tasks on the internet, often mimicking human behavior. The script discusses how bots are responsible for a significant portion of web traffic and content creation, suggesting that they have infiltrated and influenced various aspects of the internet, from social media to content generation.

💡Synthetic Media

Synthetic media refers to media content created by AI, such as fake images, deepfake videos, or AI-generated text. The video argues that synthetic media, enabled by generative AI, can be indistinguishable from real human-created content, leading to a loss of trust and a potential epistemological crisis.

💡Disinformation

Disinformation is the deliberate spread of false or misleading information. In the video, disinformation is linked to the use of AI and bots to manipulate public opinion, influence politics, and create a chaotic information landscape that undermines trust in media and institutions.

💡Economic Incentive

Economic incentive in the video refers to the financial motivations driving the development and adoption of AI technologies. The script suggests that the economic benefits of AI, such as increased efficiency and reduced costs, are a major factor in the rapid advancement and integration of AI into various industries, potentially at the expense of human jobs and genuine content creation.

💡Regulation

Regulation in the context of the video pertains to the need for government oversight and control over AI technologies, particularly generative AI. The script raises concerns about the potential negative impacts of AI, such as the creation of fake content and the undermining of human interaction, and suggests that regulation may be necessary to mitigate these risks.

💡Human Interaction

Human interaction in the video is contrasted with AI-driven interactions, highlighting the value of genuine human connection versus the artificial interactions facilitated by AI bots. The script argues that the proliferation of AI on the internet has led to a decrease in authentic human engagement, which is essential for a healthy and vibrant online community.

Highlights

Introduction of a new version of Chat GP4 by Open AI, available to over a billion users.

Interview with an individual expressing guilt over building a social media platform that erodes the core foundations of human interaction.

Concerns about the potential for technology to cause significant harm to the world.

Anomaly of private tech CEOs asking for more government regulation.

Discussion of the 'Dead Internet' conspiracy theory, suggesting the internet died around 2016 due to AI-powered gaslighting.

Evidence that most website visitors are not humans, with bots responsible for over half of all web traffic.

GitHub's use of AI to help programmers write code, and the estimation that a significant portion of Twitter accounts were bots.

YouTube engineers' term 'the inversion' describing the point at which fake views surpass real ones.

Google's concern over its search algorithm being overwhelmed by AI-generated content.

Examples of AI-generated content takeovers on platforms like Facebook.

The impact of algorithmic feeds on the decay of the internet and the proliferation of worthless content.

The infiltration of bots into various aspects of the internet, including AI-generated poetry and films.

The potential for generative AI like Chat GPT to make the internet devoid of people and filled with synthetic interactions.

Scarlett Johansson's legal action against Open AI for using a simulacrum of her voice in their model.

The internet described as a dark and dangerous place filled with bots, deep fakes, and bad actors.

The epistemological threat posed by generative AI, leading to a decline in trust in media and an increase in misinformation.

The potential for generative AI to be used for harassment, extortion, and political manipulation.

The need for rapid large-scale government regulation to combat the economic incentives driving the spread of generative AI.

The comparison of generative AI to the nuclear bomb of the information age, highlighting its transformative and potentially destructive power.

The final reflection on the internet's transformation and the challenges it poses for the future.

Transcripts

welcome back we bring you breaking news

from open ai's Live event a new version

of chat gp4 that's their latest and

greatest model this new experience will

be available to over a billion users I'm

going to be interviewing at open AI have

you heard of them open AI huh sounds

Vaguely

Familiar kidding of course that's

incredible Rocky what kind of interview

you said that this is a time for soul

searching in social media businesses and

and you were part of building the

largest one feel tremendous guilt it is

eroding the core foundations of how

people behave by and between each other

my worst fears are that we cause

significant we the field the technology

the industry cause significant harm to

the world I think if this technology

goes wrong it can go quite wrong an

anomaly on Capitol Hill private Tech

CEOs asking for more government

regulation It's usually the other way

around

[Music]

if you're old enough to remember a time

before the internet you remember just

how momentous the establishment of the

worldwide web really was within a

generation your digital life became more

important than your physical one your

digital reputation was all that mattered

but then around 8 years ago the internet

died

at least this is the contention of the

so-called dead internet conspiracy

theory it sounded crazy at first but I'm

a Believer now the

killer artificial

intelligence most analyses of the Dead

internet Theory Trace back to this one

threat on the Agora roads Macintosh C fa

Forum originally compiled by several

Anonymous users in the January of 2021

it's a mishmash of anecdote conspiracy

and classically offensive forchan

language that claims that the internet

died sometime around

2016 its most bombastic claim is that

quote the US government is engaging in

an artificial intelligence-powered

gaslighting of the entire world

population end quote the method AI

powered Bots that have subtly subverted

and steered culture towards nefarious

ends it would be impossible to validate

the most paranoid claims in the post but

others now seem obviously viscerally

true the internet does feel empty now

doesn't it dead nothing to see nothing

to

do the internet may seem gigantic but

it's like a hot air balloon nothing

inside

[Music]

this progenitor of a famous conspiracy

theory doesn't sound so crazy anymore it

was just posted too

early if it was written after the

Cambrian explosion of generative AI in

our information ecosystem it may have

even been celebrated as a great cultural

Insight while an Illuminati style Global

gaslighting campaign still seems

unlikely the evidence that the internet

may have slipped out of human control is

everywhere simply put most website

visitors are not humans in 2016 the

security firm imp perva released a

report that found that Bots were

responsible for over half of all web

traffic the report also found that every

third visit to any website on the

Internet is probably from a malicious

attack bot GitHub says AI helps their

programmers write up to 30% of their

code the company cybra estimated that

before Elon Musk took over between 11

and 133% of Twitter accounts were Bots

and were responsible for a

disproportionate amount of the content

YouTube Engineers coined the term the

inversion to describe the looming point

at which fake views would surpass real

ones Google is currently worried that

its world changing search algorithm will

drown in the current Title Wave of AI

generated content and become far less

useful if at all you see examples of

these takeovers already happening on

Faceook Facebook where images of a

crustacean adjacent Jesus Christ have

been going viral and garnering hundreds

of millions of engagements the comments

on these posts leave little room for

hope that the internet can be revived I

think the internet was terminally ill

before chaii BT was announced and

released I I think the biggest watershed

moment when you look at this sort of

theory of the decaying internet is is

the release of algorithmic feeds I think

that algorithmic ranking systems dur I

driven really set the stage for just

endless worthless pieces of content in

sort of just the whole internet to be

optimized in the most absurd ways but

the internet is not just social media

even if it feels that way and the Bots

have infiltrated there too you can buy

AI generated poetry online you can watch

films with silicon screenwriters you can

listen a podcast with dead celebrities

you can read the news reported by your

favorite neural network spawn you can be

unsettled by the first music video

generated via artificial brain

generative AI like chat GPT is the

reason why if the Internet isn't dead

and devoid of people already it soon

will be a blurry landscape of AI and

human interaction as one paper calls it

shrimp Jesus is obviously fake other

content isn't so obvious fake images

routinely fool millions of people and

make headlines now manipulated content

creates it's what's trending malicious

AI Creations Force the hands of

platforms and governments alike you can

easily create entirely fake subreddits

where every post and comment and reply

is AI generated you can create an

infinite amount of music without an

ounce of human

creativity this live stream of

generative heavy metal music has been

playing non-stop since

2019 even an internet enabled job like

Instagram influencing is triv easy to

emulate and if any of these recent

phenomena are still in The Uncanny

Valley for you and you think you can

identify them soon you won't be able to

very

soon if I were to add anything to dead

internet Theory it would be that the

public release of chat PT specifically

was a watershed moment and not a

positive one its release and

record-breaking adoption both created

enormous economic incentive for every

knowledge work industry on Earth to

create incorporate generative AI into

their businesses turbocharging the

technology and allowed anyone with any

intention good or bad to create

Bottomless Pits of lifeless digital

corpses at scale for next to

nothing according to Timothy shup of the

Copenhagen Institute for future studies

quote in the scenario where chat PT gets

loose the internet would be completely

unrecognizable end quot and in such a

scenario shup says 99 to

99.9% of online content might be AI

generated by

2025 unfortunately this is the scenario

we're living in that's just months from

now the internet died not because people

can be fooled by manipulated media

that's always been true it died because

synthetic media like that created by

Sora cha PT do e mid journey and others

can emulate human creativity at a scope

and scale that is impossible for humans

to engage with or Si through after its

initial release Chachi PT was creating

more synthetic texts for its users than

appears in all physical books ever

written every 2 weeks we've already

prognosticated the tremendous effect on

the knowledge work landscape we've

already seen an explosion of synthetic

media that tar are most

vulnerable all of this technology backed

by huge economic incentive is only going

to get better and faster and less

identifiable it will get to the point

where not even your own friends and

family will be able to tell the

difference between you and your

synthetic that's why Scarlett Johansson

who famously voiced an AI in the movie

Her had to pursue legal action against

open AI the developer of chat PT they

used a simulacro of Johansson's voice in

their 4.0 model even after she

explicitly declined

involvement Rocky that's quite a

statement piece I I mean you you'll

definitely stand out everyone thought it

was her no wonder so many of us have

turned off our lights in the dark Forest

Internet it's a Wilderness of bots and

unsettlingly human text and deep fakes

and Bad actors we stay siloed in our

discords and slacks and substacks and

podcast forums and newsletters Because

The Internet Is Not only dead it is dark

and full of

Terrors what was first conceived as a

conspiracy theory by World governments

to control the population came true not

because DARPA or the CIA deemed it so

but because some tech Bros in California

recklessly released a self-improving

revolutionary universally applicable

technology to hundreds of millions of

people without our consent the goal the

internet was to connect the world in

this sort of beautiful vision of

building a more interconnected society

which would theoretically be a beautiful

and amazing thing and I think where we

went wrong is when it started to get

Warped by this really hyper capitalist

Tech environment that we live in and so

you started to see these giant social

media companies come and disrupt things

now we're in sort of The Natural end

point of that where they've pushed so

hard into the algorithmic world that

everything has to be optimized to the

point that everything's just going to be

AI generated garbage basically feeding

each other losing the internet to Bots

and synthetic media is more

consequential than losing the fun of

their early web it's an epistemological

threat as nah shik writes in deep fakes

the coming apocalypse it's an old

Russian disinformation tactic to not

just flood an information ecosystem with

false information but with information

generally once there is too much noise

in the syst signal people start to tune

out they trust media less and less as

sorting and sifting through it all

requires more and more cognitive effort

they don't engage as much in the

Democratic process they turn towards

strong men they turn towards conspiracy

they turn against expertise and facts

and Authority when nothing is true or

cannot be judged to be so this is what

generative AI has done and it's done it

all by itself without any help from the

KGB Bad actors can now manipulate large

swaths of

people to do anything you want you don't

realize it but you are being

programmed if it feels like the internet

is more than just dead that it's

dangerous that's because it is according

to an observatory report from The

europool Innovation lab quote today

threat actors are using disinformation

campaigns and deep fake content to

misinform the public about events to

influence politics and elections to

contribute to fraud and to manipulate

shareholders many organizations have now

begun to see deep fakes as an even

bigger potential risk than identity

theft end

quote a dead internet makes it easier to

harass extort create non-consensual

pornography disrupt financial markets

Stoke political unrest and more the

efforts to regulate the eration and use

of generative AI are as could be

expected lagging far behind the adoption

and expression of the

technology do we need an international

agency to deal with this do we need new

privacy laws where is the technology

that can identify Bots and deep fakes as

quickly as they can be generated is AI

art real art is synthetic music real

music is anyone alive out

there think about where we're going to

be in 10 years and just how easy will be

to generate content at scale um and what

sort of systems we build to navigate

those pieces of content I just think

it's going to be a completely different

internet so I do think that the internet

that we probably grew up with like the

original version of the web the human

version of the web is

dead we are in a dangerous spot like how

history can be meaningfully split into

the time before nuclear weapons and the

time time after generative Ai and the

death of the internet seems like it will

be another historical

delineation they are both technologies

that instantly changed the world it

mattered who had them and who developed

them both were tested without public

consent both with extreme

criticism regulations for each were slow

or toothless both put enormous power in

the hands of just a few

people both rendered certain previous

Technologies obsolete

and both have the power to obliterate

whole

populations whether they be physical or

digital generative AI we can do it a lot

better generative

AI is the nuclear bomb of the

information

age the internet may not be dead in the

way the original conspiracy theory

claimed it may not even be dead in the

way that I claim here but what seems

indisputable is that the internet has

changed for the worse it doesn't feel as

fun or as

creative or as

connecting or as endlessly interesting

generative AI has come along with a good

enough simulacrum of human intelligence

and Poison the Well how we purify it I

don't know rapid large-scale government

regulation feels

heavy-handed but

necessary there haven't been many ways

historically to fight meaningfully

against massive economic incentives like

generative AI has I suppose this is just

another warning a warning from someone

who lives on the

internet and can see its headstone from

here until next time

[Music]

[Music]