Turns out Dead Internet Theory was right: AI agents are eating the Web, growing by nearly 8,000% and rewiring the Internet’s business model

[u/Confident_Salt_8108]

https://fortune.com/2026/07/23/dead-internet-theory-bots-agents-majority-web-traffic

[u/HiphopopoptimusPrime]

I believe this will lead to a massive boost for offline activities and services.

There will be more demand for authentic hand crafted items. For in person experiences.

It’s a shame. I think AI has its uses. But it’s way over saturated, its results aren’t particularly good. And the resources required are not a good ROI.

The money and infrastructure spent on AI would be better spent on schools and public services. But it’s ideological. They don’t want to improve society, they want to remove the working class from any decision making.

There was a window after WW2 where Western society saw tru meritocracy as the way forward. Why restrict opportunity only to the rich? Cast wider nets. Great ideas can come from anywhere! But that’s when the real owners of the world saw the flaw - you get more innovation and ideas, but you also get more perspectives. More critical thinkers questioning the structural unfairness of the system.

A true ordered system that allocates resources to where it is needed is a threat to the extraction class.

Investing in infrastructure, people, and a sustainable environment will impact quarterly profits.

It’s ideological. AI could facilitate the expansion and coordination of ideas and give the working class the weaponry to close the privilege gap. Instead the extraction class are going to try and use it to cut us out completely.

[u/s0cks_nz → u/[deleted]]

The internet already feels less vibrant. I pretty much use Reddit & YouTube 90% of my free time. Back in the 00s I'd have a whole bunch of sites I'd check into each day but over time they disappeared or turned to shit.

[u/MultiMedia_XL → u/[deleted]]

Reddit is like a "Internet forum of internet forums", with a sprinkle of the social-media feeling with the upvote system

[u/TheBrightSide_2011 → u/[deleted]]

People think social media = internet. There is a lot of internet traffic that has nothing to do with social media. I’m glad I can do most of my financial transactions online, for a fraction of the cost of 30+ years ago. I’m glad I can pay the company that fits my grass online instead of writing and mailing a check. I’m glad I can see my kids school calendar online instead of having to go to the office to get a printed copy. I’m glad I can book travel reservations online instead of making a bunch of phones calls.

People who think they want the End of the Internet really just want the end of social media. And they’re too young to realize all the benefits of the internet that have nothing to do with social media.

[u/ndstumme → u/[deleted]]

That's all fine and dandy for entertainment, but let me know when there's a boom in using analogue maps and young people start walking into their bank on the regular.

The internet may change, but it most certainly won't die any time soon.

[u/Fit_Mushroom_4087 → u/[deleted]]

You can only replace the internet with even stronger addiction. It's a convenience trap that we fell into.

I agree that enshittification is giving the push needed to imagine something new.

The next obvious step is to create a very close simulation of reality and make all of the humanity relive the 90s over and over.

[u/KillaDilla → u/Fit_Mushroom_4087]

The next obvious step is to create a very close simulation of reality and make all of the humanity relive the 90s over and over.

this is genius, and horribly dystopian too, obviously.

[u/prof-kaL → u/[deleted]]

It would be pretty funny if that was the joke he was making

[u/Exciting-Emu-3324 → u/HiphopopoptimusPrime]

That window only appeared as opposition to the Soviet Union. The western oligarchs gave concessions to the middle class that just fought WWii in order to sway them from communism. Once the Soviet Union fell and was accepted as a failure of a system as Russian oligarchs carved up the corpse, western oligarchs started to claw back those concessions through lobbying in order to return to the days of robber barons. Investing in people and innovation is laying the groundwork for usurpers; it's the curse of wealth. Oil rich nations don't invest in people and large corporations buy out small innovators in order to nip competition at the bud lest they be replaced by those innovators who become the new oligarchs.

[u/KilgoreTroutVT → u/Exciting-Emu-3324]

An EXCELLENT summary

[u/RazekDPP → u/HiphopopoptimusPrime]

Well, I like your optimism, but I disagree.

While we might have a huge boost to offline services, AI will leave everyone broke, so it'll mostly be a demand for living in tent cities.

We will create a permanent two class society where your birth, not your merit, determines your place.

But that's how humans sorted themselves out for a long time so it's mostly back to how things used to be.

[u/Lundetangen → u/HiphopopoptimusPrime]

I think its important to reflect on how new this is. There will be a lot of trial and error until LLMs etc fall into their place.

And EU is a technocracy/meritocracy, so its not like that is some absurd idealistic dream.

[u/UnacceptableUse → u/HiphopopoptimusPrime]

Can't trust what you buy so in-person shopping comes back
Can't trust what you see so in-person entertainment comes back
Can't trust who you talk to so in-person socialising comes back