Is Our Online Life An Illusion? The 'Dead Internet Theory' Says It Might Be

Does it feel like something changed on the internet in the last five years? I’m not just talking about social media trends or increasingly mainstream incel-coded slang. Nor do I mean the rise and rise of AI tools, though that might be a part of it. Instead, I’m referring to a feeling, or conspiracy, or real trend (depending on who you ask) that says the internet is mostly “dead”. Of course, that’s not to say internet usage has shrunk, or that it’s no longer an important tool of modern life. But according to the “dead internet theory”, the difference lies in who – or what – we mostly encounter there. As AI tools grow and “bots” (computer programmes that sometimes masquerade as real people online) infiltrate social media, some have begun to feel that fake digital interactions far outweigh the real ones. Here, we asked Dr Jake Renzella, a senior lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, to explain further. What is the dead internet theory? “The Dead Internet Theory is a term used to describe the phenomenon of AI or bot-generated online content and activity surpassing human-generated content on online platforms and social media,” Dr Renzella said. “The term predates modern generative AI technologies, but these technologies have exacerbated the trend.” The “death” in question refers to the internet no longer being “for and by” people. Writing for The Conversation previously, Dr Renzella said that the theory can extend beyond human-bot interactions. For instance, it posits that an AI agent might comment on a bot-made video, creating “a vicious cycle of artificial engagement, one that has no clear agenda and no longer involves humans at all”. In other words, the dead internet theory doesn’t just say bot campaigns and AI content might be made to keep humans engaged for longer or push certain agendas. It also suggests that, for instance, a piece of AI content made to encourage engagement might get a bot commenter – potentially creating an incredibly long chain of responses, not one of which includes a real person. Right. And is that likely? Well, again, dead internet theory is just that: a theory. Some of its interpretations are quite extreme. But, the Atlantic writes, “unlike the internet’s many other conspiracy theorists, who are boring or really gullible or motivated by odd politics, the dead-internet people kind of have a point”. Dr Renzella told us that stats “broadly” support the theory. He pointed to data from Cloudflare, which reported that AI ‘user action’ crawling increased by over 15 times in 2025, while global internet traffic also grew 19% in 2025. How might a “dead internet” affect us online and in real life? Some worry that agents like bots can be used to push people’s agendas. The BBC explained that when someone uses a lot of them together – as entities sometimes pay to do – it can create an overwhelming, but fake, digital consensus on topics like climate change. Scale matters here, Dr Renzella said. “The big lesson I would like readers to take away is that while identifying individual cases of AI-generated media and content such as photos or videos remains important, the larger issue is AI-generated swarms of content being used to influence sentiment online,” he explained. “For example, if searching [for] a particular recent topic on a social media site like Reddit returns a post with hundreds of comments broadly agreeing with a particular take, it is very easy for us to leave with the impression of the wisdom of the crowd – when in fact it is unknown if those comments are the result of an intentional bot-driven campaign conducted by involved actors.” Is there anything we could do about the “dead internet”? Not every extreme post or opinion is held by a bot. And sometimes, AI content might influence real-life beliefs, turning what might have once been a paid-for programme into a trend at least joined, if not always led, by people. It could also be easier to spread a fringe belief online – using artificial means at first – if it aligns with enough real individuals’ existing biases. The point is that it can be harder than you might think to tell which is which, or to disentangle the two. “Society will need to start weighing either verified or in-person sentiments more than online sentiments. Online verification may play a role in this, but so will more in-person debates, events, trusted journalism, etc,” Dr Renzella shared. He also stressed that AI might feel like its own entity sometimes, but ultimately, we need to remember it is a technology and tool. The expert ended: “While modern AI can act independently to conduct tasks, those tasks are still issued by people with politics and motivations and their own goals.” Related... 'Quiet On The Creek' Is Taking Over The Internet – Here's What It Means The Viral Debate About Iced Coffee At Job Interviews Is Splitting The Internet