How bots took over the Internet
The "Dead Internet Theory" underscores the profound impact that AI and bots have on the internet, both in terms of traffic and content.
The "Dead Internet Theory" underscores the profound impact that AI and bots have on the internet, both in terms of traffic and content. The statistics reveal a current landscape where bots dominate the vast majority of all web traffic while at the same time AI-generated content is rapidly increasing. It is projected that by 2025, near-total dominance of AI will be across nearly all content creation, with over 90% of content online being AI generated, which signifies a critical juncture for the internet, a radical departure from the human generated internet we grew up with over the past 30 years.
This highlights the urgent need for a platform like aLumifi to deliver transparency on who is making the content, who is commenting, and what is the angle and objective behind an article. Using AI based critical thinking tools we can help illuminate humanity online and rebuild trust in content in ways that were not possible before. We can give users a completely fresh take on the content they are consuming and empower their decision making to help them get closer to the truth, to cut through all the bots and peel back the media manipulations.
The Internet is only made of two core elements = traffic (visitors/readers) and content.
INTERNET TRAFFIC Over 50% is bots. 2 of 3 site visitors are bots. On small websites bots are already over 80%.
References:
Gizmodo
NewScientist 2020
Original Report
INTERNET CONTENT By 2025 over 90% of all Internet content will be AI generated. Making the Internet unrecognizable.
References:
Yahoo finance = 90%
Futurism.com = 99%
IDC-A.org = 90%
Oodaloop.com = 90%
Hackernoon.com = 99.9%
.
Statistics on the Dead Internet Theory#
The "Dead Internet Theory" posits that a significant portion of internet content is generated by bots and AI, leading to a decline in genuine human activity. These trends align with the theory's assertion that the internet is becoming dominated by automated and AI-generated activities, reducing the proportion of genuine human interaction and content. This shift could lead to a "dead" internet, where the illusion of activity is maintained by bots and AI, while real human presence dwindles.
Current State of AI and Bot Traffic and Content###
. Internet Traffic = AI and Bot Traffic
Bots Dominating Traffic: As of 2016, bots accounted for over 50% of all web traffic, with every third visit to any website likely being from a malicious attack bot. This has only increased.
Malicious Bots: A significant portion of this bot traffic is malicious, contributing to a variety of cyber threats and skewing web analytics and user data.
Increasing Bot Traffic: Reports indicate a substantial rise in bot traffic, with bots making up over 50% of all internet traffic in 2023 and projections suggesting even higher percentages in the future.
Internet Content = AI-Generated Content
Rising AI Content: Platforms like GitHub report that AI helps programmers write up to 30% of their code, indicating a substantial contribution of AI to digital content creation.
Synthetic Media: AI-generated media, including deepfakes and synthetic texts, have become increasingly prevalent. For instance, AI-generated books, news articles, and even music videos are widely accessible and often indistinguishable from human-created content.
AI-Generated Content: The rapid adoption of AI tools has led to a significant increase in AI-generated content, potentially reaching 99% of internet content by 2025-2026.
Impact on Social Media: High levels of engagement from bot accounts and the creation of AI influencers highlight the growing presence of non-human actors online.
Projected Future Trends = Impact on Human Interaction
AI Dominance by 2025: It is projected that by next year, 2025, 99% to 99.9% of online content might be AI-generated, drastically reducing the proportion of human-generated content.
Content Inundation: The release of powerful generative AI models like ChatGPT has led to a scenario where AI-generated content is being produced at an unprecedented scale, further saturating the internet.
Human Displacement: As AI continues to dominate content creation, the human touch in digital interactions is diminishing. This shift not only affects the authenticity of online interactions but also poses significant challenges in terms of trust and reliability of information.
Bot Traffic Estimates:
Bad bots are increasing at a rate of 5% per year.
Bots could account for up to 64% of the internet.
Facebook shut down 5.4 billion fake accounts in 2019, more than twice of real accounts.
Harmful bots made up 27.7% of internet users, increasing by 2.1% from the previous year.
Future Content Projections:
Experts from the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies predict that by 2025-2026, nearly 99% of the internet could be generated by artificial intelligence.
AI Influencers:
In May 2023, influencer Karen Metri made an AI version of herself to interact with fans, charging $1 per minute.
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