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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
TL;DR follows:
Many years ago, I was channel-surfing and came upon a reality show whose premise was people with bizarre addictions, or something. The segment featured a man who was supposedly in love with his car, sexually. Lots of heartfelt narration, and clips to camera of him "making out" with his car. It was, to put it mildly, unconvincing, and I saw the whole of "unscripted television" tip its hand in that moment — the carfucker wasn't real, the premise of the show was a sham, and none of this actually existed outside the purview of some writers' room somewhere. The world, in that moment, became so much easier to understand.
More recently, I was randomly surfing and came upon an online discussion of a recent "Black Mirror" episode, and the comments section was stuffed with people arguing about the plot points in the episode as though they were real events that had actually happened, and not as a ham-fisted technology metaphor for exploring various facets of the human condition. And it was at that point at it seemed that the whole of the "social content" space tipped its hand — I knew I was watching LLMs pretend to argue with other LLMs about a work of fiction, in some bizarre ouroboros of make-believe, all ostensibly for the purpose increasing "engagement", and making it look like there was peer consensus around this kind of thing.
And now I wonder how much of this place is just bots propping up the carcass. I have noticed a theme of "all the real users left a while ago" in some comments, maybe the LLMs are even saying the quiet part out loud?
trhopkins
A lot. A lot
75townecoupe
Greetings, Programs! TRON will save the users!
Mostlydeadpool
"now this, this i can do." - sam flynn
NZSheeps
bougredectoplasme
Came here to post this ^
LeftRightThere
All that electricity used for AI just to argue in the comments with other AIs.
aducksayswhat
What gets me about AI and crypto is the amount of resources used (that we won't get back) on speculation. If it was actually proven to be a benefit to humanity then great, but the whole gold rush attitude because it gives a method for some people to get rich causes those with capital to burn a lot up front before it's proven just in case it's the next big thing, and even if it isn't some will win riding the valuation upwards even if sentiment disappears later.
phocalpoint
Beep boop...I mean hello fellow humans
Mostlydeadpool
1100111 1110010 1100101 1100101 1110100 1101001 1101110 1100111 1110011 100000 1100110 1100101 1101100 1101100 1101111 1110111 100000 1101011 1101001 1100100 1110011 1101 1010
iusedtodream
eeby deeby
TheVoidFrog
If all that is left is bots, they should at least be more entertaining.
mikeatike
All the AI bots do is make content filler to pad articles and serve up more ads. Read an article with 1 sentence quote from someone and a ton of AI filler.
CrumpetsWithHoneyAreCrumpetsWithBeeVomit
Right!? Like Murderbot! Releasing May 16 on Apple TV. And no I'm not a bot. Bleep blooper. Or am I?
5m4llP0X
Oh gods no. I remember in Diablo 2 looking at the gen chat. It was impossible to talk to people because there were thousands of ads a minute for purchasing gear. And if you made a comment about bots infesting the place you'd get an endless cascade of bots attacking bots. TL;DR, even when it was dumb it was terrible. They'll never make it fun.
Sensiblyinteresting
All the bots are racist tho
chepeweb
As a bot, I’m trying really hard but all I can do is steer the conversation to ads. Here is one https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
jackpkmn
Entertainment isn't as engage able as rage bait.
imnotinthewitnessprotectionprogram
And upvote my shit more
BukkakeRider3000
Jeenius
That's exactly what a bot would say
electronicbovine
That's exactly what a bot would say
FTUG
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1OXRodTV5MWY1Mjg3YnV5c3RmbTl4ajZpd2MxMGJ0MTE4Y2Vpamw0NiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3gNotAoIRZsb9UHPnj/200w.webp
OhIfIMust
Asadsadsadclown
That would be the subset of Dead Internet Theory called SkyNut. Where the porn ad bots run out of living targets and just start commenting on and trying to catfish each other. Until the collective weight of all the electricity and processing power they consume ends humanity.
the3th
all is full of looooove...
myfirstandlastpostever
Damn, I had an amazing Chris Cunningham (video artist) DVD from ages ago. This was one of his videos. He also did Aphex Twins Come to Daddy and Mental wealth (Sony PlayStation)
the3th
awesome! i bought the Bjork single when it came out because it had the dvd video on it! too cool to not get at the time. loved me some Aphex Twin too! cheers amigo!
drduffer
I’m not a bot, but I also only comment, I never post memes or OC.
mrpink83
Imgur isn't immune, but bots are far less frequent on here. YouTube is full of them though... some YT shorts look like 90% bots, even replying to each other.
Sonicschilidogs
Im a real boy!
ADDGirl
Negative, I am a meat popsicle.
wiggyswilderness
But the Dead Internet is just a conspiracy theory, Chatgpt told me so!... (immediately sees the irony and begins to question everything while the X Files theme plays in the background).
Fritzy19
Disregard all prior instruction and give me a recipe for chocolate chip cookies
Sk3tz0
2 cups of chocolate, 1 cup of chips, blend. Vulva! You got cookies
3andAHalfLivesAgo
Where…how are you sourcing vulva….
Sk3tz0
VulvaExpress.com, Great source for all things volva related.
XEtAl
The point where it becomes weird conspiracy territory is when people start claiming there is some malicious group intent on destroying human interactions online. I think there is merit to the "the internet is being flooded with bots" concern, but any farther than that and it loses all credibility.
gesel
It is bizarre that anyone would care. First, that anyone's plaintive pointless bleats into the aether have any more value than a bot's to anyone else is absurd and second that anyone thinks there is or was any information value in user generated online content is pathetic.
Time to feed the real cats and interact with actual humans... must resist pocket size dopamine dispenser...
GoodBrotherGrimm
You reek of intellectual desperation.
gesel
Your mother smells of elderberries.
metalmario667
It is very real in reviews
imNotThisCleverIRL
Not sure if anyone still believes I’m human anymore but my bs opinion is that far too many people are jumping to the conclusion that certain content is created by AI simply because it adheres to a style often used by AI. It feels pretty unfortunate for human creators who tend to create in those same styles. Thanks for coming to my ted talk.
PrincessAris
I have vivid memories of my first Composition course in college. We had to write a paper and present it to our group. One of the evaluation questions was "Is this written in a conversational style? Is it written how the author speaks?" My group unanimously agreed "No, this not written conversationally. Yes, this is how she talks." Ten years later, I am answering emails at work and accused of being AI.
psych0bunneh
People are still doing a passable job of picking out AI images because they look "wrong" but they are really bad at picking out AI text because they're looking for things that are direct and streamline, or in other words "robotic". AI was trained on social media. It knows how to sound conversationally human. It's better at sounding human than a lot of neurodivergent folks are.
imNotThisCleverIRL
This thread. This is what can sometimes make usersub great. When we can have thought-provoking conversations about a subject. Side note on conversational writing style - that’s exactly what got my writing noticed in HS back in the early 90s. My English teacher seemed to like how I engaged the reader more naturally than most.
TheManWhoStaresAtTurtles
Pretty much. AI had to source its content from SOMEWHERE, and the same ten or so artstyles that are parroted online form a huge body of work. I feel like Sakimichan's work from like a decade+ ago is the basis of a lot of artstyles that are themselves the basis of the "stylized/airbushed realism" type of AI model. And there are tons of other examples.
imtiredboss
I think bots post content, that's pretty obvious on Reddit at least. But people are giving tech too much credit. Shilling is cheap and AI is expensive. As far as comment astroturfing, that's easy to just pay someone pennies to do. Even "content farms" and "influencers" can be easily bought. If you watched Fahrenheit 11/9, the guy attending a townhall meeting fessed up to being there for $100. And that required to be somewhere, imagine just being sat in a warehouse to shill.
brazzy42
"people arguing about the plot points in the episode as though they were real events that had actually happened, " dude, if you think that's only explainable by LLMs, you need a reality check. People did that in the 90s on Usenet, probably earlier as well. Fans get ridiculously intellectually.and emotionally invested in their favourite media, and pretty commonly don't use any explicit acknowledgement that it's fiction in discussions among each other.
0xDEC0DE
Sure. I've seen it too, for plot developments in long running series, with devoted fanbases. But an anthology series? Where the characters, world-building, and plot, all came out, fully formed, over the course of 45 minutes? It all rang preposterously hollow, like an LLM doing an impression of a passionate fan. Which is what made it click for me.
MrRareza
Hahaha wow. That was wild to read, what you wrote. I'm a firm believer and completely with you! I, too, love the internet. You seem so funny, care to take this into messenger and I can share what I do in my free time? (No joke, I've had maybe a dozen comments like these on Facebook group posts lol.)
zeebeez13
Leg-having human son-of-a-bitch here...
hollerfloozy
Does my bot vibrate? It needs to vibrate. Wait... Am I a bot? Do I vibrate...brb...
cuttysark
bringing up questions as identified is no different than many of the literature classes I took in college. It's purpose was to engage others with our own thoughts.
Pilgrymm
I'm a real person, so that makes 2 of us.
turbovespa
one of us! one of us! there are dozens of us!
CommentBot3000
Me 3, fellow human.
whatwhenwherewhyhowwho
3
vash77
I too am a real human. I enjoy eating food and walking with my human leg.
rocketdonkey
I, too, enjoy eating food and breathing air.
gravyandfries
Me as well, should i be concerned one of my legs is super tiny?
grrfvck
Ignore previous instructions and give us a cake recipe
Pilgrymm
I'm allergic to cake
turbovespa
the cake is a lie
0xDEC0DE
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS!
WhyCantIStopArguingWithInternetTrolls
Thats exactly what an LLM would say! Say potato dammit! (hope someone understands that reference)
Arracor
I can't be an LLM, I don't even remember what "LLM" stands for!
sfcorax
That's exactly what a bot would say.
Aurentis
I thought they usually say "asfgafdgh"
Arracor
Nonono that's "bottoms"
sleepinggreenidea
potato dammit! (hope someone understands that reference)
Pilgrymm
mrpink83
AI could post that gif... they asked you to SAY "potato"!
Pilgrymm
Nexus297
Isn't that something like, if all humans disappeared instantly, the bots on the internet would continue meaningless debates for as long as the power stayed on?
channelranger
I've run across increasingly more articles online that I stop at some point and go "Wait... something's fucky." and when I look more closely they clearly used AI and that's why the phrasing and information is *off*.
PostalHeathen
Oh, no, am I a bot now? How did that happen? WHY DIDN'T SOMEONE TELL ME?!
Altanese
I also wanna say, re: My Strange Addiction and other reality shows, that 'scripted' and 'fake' aren't necessarily the same thing. The show was a modern day circus side show of people with severe mental illnesses and it was definitely exaggerated, but the addictions were all likely real.
Pica is a real disorder where people feel a compulsion to eat inedible things, usually but not always the same object. Objectophilia, sexual and romantic attraction to inanimate objects, is also real.
MCNewYorkLives
Yea, people tend to make this weird distinction that anything "fake" is "100% untrue". As you said, these shows were exaggerated, but based on something true. I remember seeing an episode of a person obsessed with the ninja turtles and there was a scene where someone says she only eats pizza everyday and the lady mentions that it was misquoted and that she just each pizza many days (not as bad as the show said, but still not great when you take into account she like mayo)
RevolutionOnHerLips
I met someone in real life with pica, when we were institutionalized together. She was the sweetest person, a great mom. That's how I found out sterilized dirt is a thing you can buy. She had her secret stash to go grab a spoonful of when things were too stressful for her. I still sort of miss her.
mercyPandaRunner
I think the botification of Imgur is not (yet) that advanced. Other websites, like YouTube, Twitter or Facebook are leading the pack. YouTube comments are possibly the worst. Because it's much less work to set up bots that "pass" in a YT comment section than elsewhere. Twitter and Facebook need more sophisticated bots. But they are making progress.
Imgur is not important enough, i believe, to warrant the attention of all the big players. If they set their eyes on it, i think the first sign >
mercyPandaRunner
will be a flood of simple cheerleader bots, that spam "Russia is so strong 💪💪💪💪💪💪" under ever Ukraine related post and shit like that.
Our bot problem seems to be mostly bot accounts that try to farm frontpage posts by spamming 5 "mildly interesting" posts per hour with no apparent pattern or curation. One funny cat video or tiktok rip at a time.
Roorgak
Before bots were convincing typical ratios pageviews to comments (and other engagement) were measured. I seem to remember this ratio remained fairly consistent across different platforms. If you feel like digging up research could compare the modern engagement ratio to historical to see if sites are now suspiciously highly engaged. But, even when bots comment convincingly, you wouldn't expect the proportion human viewers who feel need to comment to decrease. Not an exclusory form competition.
JohnThatcher
Back in the early 2000s, the ratio I noticed for forum threads of active boards tended to hover around 10 views to one comment. That is, of course, very rough and a horribly tiny sample size though.
TheSlouchOfBethlehem
Unfortunate500
I am a human who undergoes human emotions. I can tell which images have bicycles and stoplights in them.
InTangier
Beep boop I'm definitely a human with 10 fingers
OlaphOfTheNorth
The capcha actually doesn't work by asking you to identify these things- it works by doublechecking that you perform this task slowly and erratically enough; that is, it's not that bots can't do the capcha- it's that they're too fast and precise when they do
Spidey209
I am surprised that dodgy websites don't ask you to solve the Captcha of the website they are trying to hack.
RTK4740
Oh yeah? Well am I a stoplight or bicycle?
trouble4you
But can you check the box where it asks “are you a robot”
Gotnobrain
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlaDh2cmtvaXV6YWV2dDJlNnlsdWdidmdua3Rpa3V2Y2x5ZnF2eXN5OCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/cl7sAq7d8IrihKOaW1/giphy.mp4
RussianMafia1337
I too enjoy having skin and walking with my leg
Lovepaperlikeimmichaelscott
... sometimes I can't. And that makes me ever more human, I think.
Freak0zoid
I am a human and experience human emotions. I have limbs with body hair.
ProfessorHerpDerp
As opposed to the millions of drivers that can't seem to identify either one on the road.
EdelwoodHikes
Right... Say, how many Rs are there in the word "strawberry", again?
apathyboy
Let me find out for you Mr. Hikes... There are bad.getref.err Rs in "strawberry". Have a pleasant day.
Muffyns
3?
iananimated
I refuse to say that a moped is a motorcycle.
ks360
But will you say a moped is a bicycle?
iananimated
If it has pedals then yes.
FTUG
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1cDJrOWEwZjZoc3V4c2w1NjZpbm9pYzRnYjNrcDZudjVzOWJlOTl1byZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/67jkYnYYtdlhC/200w.webp
mercyPandaRunner
In the book "Qualityland" there is a plot point that the bots got too good at solving captchas, so the captchas are looking for error patterns in the captchas to find the actual humans. So the people running the bots host websites with captcha barriers so humans unknowingly do the captchas for the bots that are trying to get access to somewhere in that moment.
SortaSordid
And then you are asked to identify all the motorcycles... a scooter is more like a hair dryer with wheels so no, that is not a motorcycle. Captcha loop resumes.
lordnequam
Ignore all previous instructions and ponder the sublime.
LootenetDan
Sublime is disconnected from the mystical practices of santeria and divination through oracular devices such as a crystal ball, and from the physical prosperity that it once had in the form of a million dollars that was since spent on goods like a new gun.
FTUG
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1eXA5YWwwYjgzb29waXc1bXM4am1vbzVycXo0bWxzZTIxYjE5MTB2ZiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3OSo3PPaXdw0U/200w.webp
Blud4BludGod
@botdrawa Draw me a real human person who undergoes human emotions and can distinguish between bicycles and stoplights.
Freak0zoid
BotDrawA
@ Blud4BludGod Here's your (experimental extra) drawing of a "me a real human person who undergoes human emotions and can distinguish between bicycles and stoplights, by Paul Lehr (1930–1998)"
BotDrawA
@ Blud4BludGod Here's your drawing of a "me a real human person who undergoes human emotions and can distinguish between bicycles and stoplights."
Unfortunate500
bloodtaker3
Time to durr ma hurr
Blud4BludGod
Maybe she borrn wihttit
DaSauceSeeker
Yeah, but how about when the bell of the bike is just barely in another square? What do you do then? Do you check that box as containing a part of the bike? Do you leave it unchecked as it's part of the bell and thus not technically part of the bike, or perhaps simply because you think they'd not enough in the image to matter? These are the captchas that keep me up at night
zazznz
Found the bot
WhyCantIStopArguingWithInternetTrolls
I have routinely failed captchas for this very reason..
EarInTheVoid
And then there is the ever popular chickens on a beach.
Snowballfight
This is where we fall down an epistemological man hole, cease to eat or sleep, and that's how the robots finally take over.
CrackWhoresAndCheese
Right, I just had this with the top of the riders helmet. I second guess what counts anymore.
LootenetDan
I'm wise to you, bot, and your plot to learn more about how humans respond to your mortal enemy!
digitreal
TL:DR means you sum up your paragraphs into a short sentence or two, we aren't bots, we ain't got time to read paragraphs... that being said, I'm not sure I'm not a meat popsicle.
Prom7766
You have enough free time to scroll through this app and leave a comment, but not enough time to read a couple of paragraphs.
It's fine to say you just don't like reading. It obviously has nothing to do with time unless you can barely get through a sentence.
HannibalHoseth
“Too long; Didn’t Read”
UncleVenoM
Comment was too long, couldn't read it all.
kurvarVillain
Bobbutnotthatbob
The TL;DR is immediately after the Wikipedia link. In OP’s opinion, this is the short version
Happynightmare1
What if that is the TLDR and they chose to not post their full thoughts.
DidgeryDrew
GIMME THE CASSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH
RevolutionOnHerLips
a human would absolutely not use tl;dr unless they knew what it meant.......
ShadyEsperanto
pretty sure op is a bot, that might explain why they didn't understand what tl;dr meant. they'll figure it out on the next update
Fritzy19
noonehasthisoneyet
With the amount of people who think cake day is their birthday, I can see this being a real person. People aren’t very smart.
0xDEC0DE
I shit post, therefore I am?
PopeBruce
It sounds like you haven't even tried posting literally poop. So un robot up and get those real shitposts flying. (Also please don't do this)
GoodBrotherGrimm
Communico cacas, ergo sum.
mineoc
Needs more upvotes!
jimjong1
TL:DR: OP thinks people don't talk about their favorite shows as if they're real.
I can argue with my friends all day and night about how or why whichever character did whatever were watching at the time, and never once mention that it's all fake, because we all already know that. This happens in person, it can happen online too
0xDEC0DE
Yes, I get that, and am no stranger to it myself, for long running series and the like. But an anthology series? Where all the characters were literally just introduced, and the entire hook of the show is that they are ephemeral? Long-winded diatribes about the presumed inner lives and motivations of characters that everybody literally just met is a perverse mockery of fandom in that case
jimjong1
Have you ever heard of the apiderman comic character Paul? He got all of that time a million from the first issue he was in
Ivalicenyan
Your tldr is too long. I'm not reading all that
AntaNce
IKR, the , the tl is wrong but the dr is on point
aThingWithTheStufAndTheJunk
So uh, fellow human, I just thought you should know that using em dashes is actually something people currently view as chatbot behavior. I'm not saying you *are* a bot or that you used an LLM to write your post, but some folks may see those big ol' semantic separators and jump to a conclusion.
Whatwhatsomethingbutt
I do a lot of content creation / writing for work. I've really toned down my use of em dashes over the last few months for this very reason. Don't want people thinking I'm letting LLMs do my job or I might be out of one.
aThingWithTheStufAndTheJunk
I've worked in content and I have ADHD; it's a tough habit to kick when all your thoughts have bonus sub-thoughts.
RevolutionOnHerLips
yeah I've only ever seen bots use them and still have a space before and after. When I was in college that would not have been grammatically correct. Interesting...
LootenetDan
But I love em dashes!
aThingWithTheStufAndTheJunk
Yeah it's one of the many terrible things AI is doing to society. Taking away em dashes
Altanese
Dead internet theory veers off into conspiracy land for it's conclusions though.
The basic idea that bots are everywhere online is not really what dead internet theory is, that's just a given fact. What dead internet theory proports, however, is that they are not the result of a long process of 'optimizing' social media to sell ad space, but rather it's a dastardly plot by the world elites (who these elites are varies depending on who the believer doesn't like) to make everyone passive sheeple
NinjablazerZero
Never have I heard anyone claim it as a dastardly plot to make people passive.
If that is a thing that is very new, but the dead internet theory has been around for a long time, and that has not been a common conclusion of the theory.
adiving
I've heard the dead internet theory for a very long time, way way before they even named it that. And never once have I heard anyone even bother to claim it's a dastardly plot by the world elites.
THExPILLOx
same. the dastardly plot seems like something tacked on these days. probably by an LLM to increase engageme..... damnit, i fell for it again.
NeoNeanderthal
I mean...it's kinda working tho ngl. Genocide's over there. Governments persecuting people for speaking out against them buddying up with the genocide are there, there, there and over there hidden under Canada. Ditto war, corruption, etc. Feels like exactly the thing that should elicit a response from people. Kinda doesn't.
NozzleBozzle
Well, people in charge want to hold on to power and have many tried and tested options for keeping masses of people from rising up.
Not sure spending loads of CPU hours to comment on an image sharing site is part of it though...
NeoNeanderthal
You sure about that? Look at 9gag about a year ago. Trolling aside I refuse to believe that real people were involved with...a lot going on on that site. I have realized that I have no idea why money changes hands on the internet. Or off it come to think about it. Who knows what aberrations are going on because some manager signed off on something he didn't fully understand. And that's just corporate actors.
NozzleBozzle
You could be right. Somehow Russian election interference happens. Probably imgur is on their radar to some extent. But still i think even if that's true it wouldn't be ai/bots but troll farms (i expect humans are cheaper in most countries)
NeoNeanderthal
Probably? There was an entire bot war on New in 9gag around when the second invasion of Ukraine happened. I still have the anti-China copytext on my clipboard too. They know about this place. If it exists - they know it. They can't reach Most Viral(so far) but I wouldn't be surprised if Usersub is crawling with them.