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The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

adriankrebs.ch

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Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#101

Post by pixl97 »

amiantos wrote: post #81
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is it being called dead internet theory “A social networking system simulates a user using a language model trained using training data generated from user interactions performed by that user. The language model may be used for simulating the user when the user is absent from the social networking system, for example, when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased” [1]. (More seriously: https://en.…

So why isn't it called "dead social media theory"? The internet is not only social media services, though I understand a lot of people seem to think that without centralized social media services there is no reason to use the internet.

Have you been on the internet at large lately? With google you may get one authoritative site on something and 50 bot copies of the site on different domains. Sometimes the stolen site is the number one return. Also, if you ran sites years/decades ago, you realized way back then the any local user posting was getting overran by spammers/bots. Now is so much worse that it's not worth doing in most cases.

So, most posts on social media aren't real.

Most user posts on non-social media are spam/not real.

Most websites in searches are copies/ad spam.

So yea, dead internet reality.

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#102

Post by thesz »

robotswantdata wrote: post #86
amiantos wrote: post #51

Why is it being called dead internet theory when, as far as I can tell, what's really happening is that big centralized systems are being overrun with bots? The internet existed and was pretty great before these large centralized systems came into being. Anyone can still run a blog/website, and/or their own discourse server. There's no need to mourn for these centralized systems that largely existed only to exploit u…

How would the small internet fight the bots? Aggressive moderation? Disable UGC?

HashCash.

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#103

Post by munk-a »

ryandrake wrote: post #74
bonesss wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A $10 one time not-an-asshole fee is totally reasonable. History also shows you can take a $10 fee and maintain quality on SomethingAwful for quite some time.

I would probably not pay $10 to post on HN, but many spammers who expect some kind of tangible return would pay that, so the fee just makes the problem worse.

The spammers wouldn't pay it once though - the idea is that it's a good way to scale moderation. Each time an admin needs to ban a user there is a 10$ subsidy supporting that action - and if the bots come back then they get to pay 10$ to be banned again.

Assuming the money isn't wasted and is actually used to fund moderation 10$ is probably comfortably above the cost to detect and ban most malicious users.

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#105

Post by xdennis »

amiantos wrote: post #51

Why is it being called dead internet theory when, as far as I can tell, what's really happening is that big centralized systems are being overrun with bots? The internet existed and was pretty great before these large centralized systems came into being. Anyone can still run a blog/website, and/or their own discourse server. There's no need to mourn for these centralized systems that largely existed only to exploit u…

> Let's celebrate "small internet theory", an internet where exploitation is effectively impossible because every company that tries it is overrun with AI bots.

But isn't it even harder for small forums to resist the robot onslaught without the trillion dollar valuations to fund it?

Although, part of the reason Facebook/Linkedin/Twitch/etc have bots is because those companies secretly want them, in order to inflate their usage numbers.

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#106

Post by Oras »

Ancalagon wrote: post #4

Hey it’s what executives want. Fake everything. Slop and robots everywhere. Have at it, I say. Maybe then people will go outside again

I wish going outside again were possible, but what if most of the people you actually want to hang out with aren't in the same area?

And for those who are near, the cost of having a coffee or a drink is too much now on top of expenses that are already stretching,

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#107

Post by wrs »

> And of course let’s not forget AI spamming OSS repos with nonsensical PRs. What’s even funnier is when the reviewer turns out to be AI too.

What's even funnier is this is literally how "agent teams" (the latest hotness) work. They just do it all on your laptop rather than spamming GitHub.

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#108

Post by apitman »

bsaul wrote: post #5

I only see two outcomes for this problem : an internet of verified identities (start by uploading your ID card). Or a paid internet, where it doesn't matter who you are, but since you're going to pay for that email or that reddit account, the probability that it's AI spam is greatly reduced. And i'm looking forward to none of them.

People can also move to smaller communities

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#109

Post by bfeist »

amiantos wrote: post #81
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is it being called dead internet theory “A social networking system simulates a user using a language model trained using training data generated from user interactions performed by that user. The language model may be used for simulating the user when the user is absent from the social networking system, for example, when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased” [1]. (More seriously: https://en.…

So why isn't it called "dead social media theory"? The internet is not only social media services, though I understand a lot of people seem to think that without centralized social media services there is no reason to use the internet.

100% agree that this is what it should be called. To argue that big websites being big makes them equivalent to the whole Internet is absurd. Besides, I love the idea of the only recourse to be to go back to independently run information websites.

Re: The dead Internet is not a theory anymore

#110

Post by robotswantdata »

aerhardt wrote: post #96
robotswantdata wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unfollow works too

I’ve been unfollowing people for a while and the issue is rarely from within my network anymore… the feed shows a lot of posts from AI foisters who I don’t even follow.

Same. LinkedIn is now unusable for me. Will try blocking!
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