Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our lives and easy access to its tools is propelling its use to another level, ever more present in our daily lives. This situation has fueled a theory, that of a “dead internet”, which appeared in the early 2020s. It suggests that the internet will soon be dominated by AIs communicating with each other, producing content for them, and therefore that information produced and disseminated by humans will become rarer until it disappears.
Live Science magazine explored this theory. Through initial research results, the site was able to discover that the phenomenon does not yet seem to manifest itself in real life, even if interactions between humans and bots are increasingly frequent. This is not to say that AI is not irreparably changing the global computer network.
Changes that are already reflected in our digital daily lives. “The problem is that the race for natural referencing (SEO) and the desire to adapt to the algorithms of social networks have generated an overabundance of content, and a decline in its quality. alert Adam Nemeroff, assistant vice president for educational and technological innovation at Quinnipiac University (Connecticut).
“Content designed to capture our attention (advertising, etc.) has become the main vector for disseminating informationhe adds. This content, often of poor quality and generated by artificial intelligence, now occupies a preponderant place.»
Produce more and more content
This low-quality content – articles, images, videos and posts on social networks, generated by tools like ChatGPT – often referred to as “AI-generated content”, takes the form of unusual videos, photo montages, bogus articles and viral fake news.
This phenomenon is partly fueled by the desire to produce ever more online content to generate clicks, attract attention to websites and improve their ranking on search engines. A vicious circle dangerous for the user.
A weakened trust
In November 2024, SEO company Graphite found that the number of AI-generated articles had surpassed human-written articles. Although 86% of articles listed on Google are still written by humans, compared to only 14% by AI, this demonstrates a significant increase in artificial content.
Thus, trust in information is broken and it is difficult to recognize real content from fake content, whether it is a video of a dancing dog or a news report. Experts recommend assuming that all information is produced by AI and doing quick research to verify its veracity. An attitude that is psychologically exhausting and which promises to be difficult to maintain in the long term.
“AI-created content that is brighter, louder and more captivating than reality, sucking in human attention like a vortex, says Nell Watson, IEEE member and AI ethics engineer at Singularity University. That creates a siren song effect where AI companions or entertainment streams are more seductive than human interactions, which are often chaotic, conflicting and sometimes disappointing.»
It is undeniable that AI has transformed our use of the internet and the web. While we are in the midst of change, it is difficult to predict exactly what the Internet will look like if this trend continues. Asked about the possibility of AI transforming the internet into a “ghost town”, Nell Watson retorts: “It won’t be so much a ghost town as a zombie apocalypse.”
