We’ll never know the true extent of the dead internet theory, but I do genuinely wonder what percentage of traffic on the internet is either bots or paid agitators.
Half? 75%? More? Less?
We’ll never know, and nowhere is safe.
And with AI being able to generate fairly convincing images, audio, and videos (at first impression, and getting more and more convincing by the day), it will become harder and harder to tell what is genuine and what is a lie.
2006: user generated content is a revolution! We are now exchanging information and ideas directly with each other without needing information gatekeepers like traditional media or paid advertisers or anything like that! The future is gonna be a utopia where the powerful will be challenged at every turn!
2026: a significant percentage of “user generated content” is generated either by AI or people who are being paid to do so for commercial or political reasons… I suppose those are “users” too…
I keep seeing that’s it’s become more like around 90%, as genuine users are being drowned in the noise thanks to algorithms; it occupies much of the “dark web” as well
Reddit has always had a bot problem but of the more than 50 AI bot accounts explored for this article all became active after Reddit partnered with OpenAI. Every account found that matched this pattern of behavior became active during this period. e.g. Same links posted by them.
Additionally during this period Reddit added terms on AI advertising to their business page and the partnership announcement with OpenAI says they became an advertising partner.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
We’ll never know the true extent of the dead internet theory, but I do genuinely wonder what percentage of traffic on the internet is either bots or paid agitators.
Half? 75%? More? Less?
We’ll never know, and nowhere is safe.
And with AI being able to generate fairly convincing images, audio, and videos (at first impression, and getting more and more convincing by the day), it will become harder and harder to tell what is genuine and what is a lie.
There was an article back in October 2025 which stated that at that point bot generated internet content had exceeded human generated content.
2006: user generated content is a revolution! We are now exchanging information and ideas directly with each other without needing information gatekeepers like traditional media or paid advertisers or anything like that! The future is gonna be a utopia where the powerful will be challenged at every turn!
2026: a significant percentage of “user generated content” is generated either by AI or people who are being paid to do so for commercial or political reasons… I suppose those are “users” too…
why, humanity, why??? ;____;
As always, the answer is capitalism
Once the rich knew that they could control what people see on the internet and influence people with it, it was GG.
The rich get richer and gain more control because they control everything
I keep seeing that’s it’s become more like around 90%, as genuine users are being drowned in the noise thanks to algorithms; it occupies much of the “dark web” as well
lol. the bots were there LONG ago ago
Reddit has always had a bot problem but of the more than 50 AI bot accounts explored for this article all became active after Reddit partnered with OpenAI. Every account found that matched this pattern of behavior became active during this period. e.g. Same links posted by them.
Additionally during this period Reddit added terms on AI advertising to their business page and the partnership announcement with OpenAI says they became an advertising partner.