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before i get into the video i would like
to say that this theory has some rather
extreme conspiracies attached to it the
purpose of this video is simply to
explain the theory so more people can
understand it my personal beliefs do not
align with those who popularized or have
written about the theory nor do i agree
with the theory itself this is solely an
informative video
with that being said let's explore the
dead internet theory
i'm sure that all of us at some point
while exploring the internet have come
across bots
an intelligent string of code posing as
a human
whether it was a strange discord message
promoting a scam an individual direct
messaging you on social media with a
phishing scam or even an ai enemy in a
game
by now they are just about everywhere
and with every passing day
new breakthroughs in software
engineering and artificial intelligence
allow botting schemes to become more and
more sophisticated
these bots are already implemented in
almost every aspect of our online lives
but to most they'll remain just that
bots we interact with fully aware of
their existence as mere code
but
could it be possible that a vast
majority of the quote-unquote real
people we believe to interact with
online are just simply bots
it's a question that seems completely
outrageous at first
of course there is no way a majority of
users in the online space are robots
right
well according to the dead internet
theory that is exactly the case
in the original forum post that gained
the theory much of its popularity
a user by the name illuminati pirate
proposes that a large amount of the
seemingly human-made content on the
internet is actually produced by ai bots
now that might seem like a completely
insane idea
surely you'd be able to tell if you were
interacting with a robot right
well it might not be quite as outrageous
as it initially seems
let me explain
artificial intelligence is becoming more
advanced every day
deep fakes are becoming more realistic
voice assistants are becoming more
accurate and chatbots are getting
smarter
this is making it harder and harder to
tell the difference between artificial
intelligence and humans
in fact that entire section above was
written by gpt3 a language processing
artificial intelligence developed by a
company called openai
and gpg3 is just the most advanced model
that the public is aware of
the data internet theory suggests that
companies or even government agencies
have developed more sophisticated
technology capable of perfectly
emulating a human online presence
so
if these bots do exist what would be
their purpose
well according to the theory there are
two main reasons
the first is online marketing to
influence real customers to buy certain
products
the age of the online consumer is well
upon us with close to 90 percent of
shoppers buying products online
and with this has come many changes to
the marketing landscape
from guerrilla marketing ad campaigns on
social media to the rise of influencers
promoting products we can clearly see
the power of online advertising
for a social media campaign the general
idea is to create a trend or meme based
around a product that can grow
organically
a great example of an attempt at this
are companies like walmart and
mcdonald's creating songs and dances in
conjunction with paying influencers and
tick tock itself to promote these videos
on their platform
so
what does this all have to do with the
bots running the internet
well the theory claims the bonded
accounts are both creating content based
around brands and engaging with these ad
campaigns to make them seen easier on
social media
you see just about every social media
website sorts posts and people by
popularity in some way whether it's the
most upvoted posts being shown first on
reddit or instagram accounts with more
followers being recommended first the
formula is the same
views and likes get more views and likes
and the best way at getting those views
and likes
well botting them of course the second
reason for the bot's existence according
to the theory is to sway public opinion
this one shares many of the same aspects
as the first but swap company out for
governing agency
while companies employ bots to increase
profits governments employ bots to
increase influence
we have already seen many examples of
misinformation being spread online from
opposing political opponents and it's
not hard to imagine how easy this could
be with an army of bots promoting a
desired narrative however the theory
takes this idea a bit further that a
vast majority of news and entertainment
spread online have some sort of ulterior
motive that is being generated on mass
by a controlling government or in the
author's own words gaslighting on a
global level
as i said earlier in this video a lot of
the theories claims are very
conspiratorial there are many reasons
that i'll cover towards the end of the
video as to why i personally do not
believe many parts of this theory
including this one however that does not
mean that all parts of the theory should
be thrown out
in 2018 a study conducted by ghost data
found that 9.5
of instagram accounts were actually bots
posing as real humans
that is over 95 million bodied accounts
and those were just the obvious ones
this issue is not exclusive to instagram
either
facebook has already removed billions of
bot accounts in an attempt to stop the
spread of misinformation from bots and
to get rid of accounts impersonating
others but even after that facebook
still claims that 16 of all accounts are
duplicates or bots
this is a number that has been steadily
rising throughout the years
more than doubling from 2015 to 2019
and due to advancements in ai
it is possible that this number is much
much higher and that we simply can't
tell
the theory itself proposes that even as
far back as 2015
the botted accounts have outnumbered us
and while this may not be the case there
is certainly no denying the fact that
they are out there and their numbers and
influence are only growing
in addition there is definitely
something to be said about the power of
the majority being able to sway others
opinions
the ash conformity experiments are a
great example of this
in a study groups of eight male college
students were all given a seemingly
simple task two pieces of paper
one with a line on it and another with
three lines on it labeled a b and c
one line was the same size as the line
on the first card
with the other two being obviously
longer or shorter
the task was to simply say which line
from the single card matched with one
from the other card
the catch in the experiment was that
seven out of the eight participants were
all actors with only one true subject
per experiment
the actors were told to present the
incorrect answer intentionally when it
came time for actual participants to
turn and present their case they chose
the incorrect line that matched the
actors in 12 out of 15 trial runs
despite it being the obvious incorrect
answer
in interviews with the participants
after the study they cited going with
the group as their reasoning for
choosing their choice
there have been many more studies like
this but the fact behind the matter is
that one's opinion can be easily swayed
simply due to not wanting to be the odd
one out
so
knowing just how prevalent the bots we
are aware of are in the online space
and how powerful the going with the
group effect is
is it possible that organizations are
using human-like bots to create and
engage with their own content to gain a
competitive advantage
well
as of now i personally believe that the
world is still too connected in real
life exchanges for most of the internet
to be made up of false accounts and for
no one to notice it
but this might not always be the case as
time goes on
in addition the free market has resulted
in large corporations and government
bodies competing very heavily with each
other not working together as a theory
implies
we know companies are competitive with
each other and there are simply too many
moving parts for something like this to
be possible in my own eyes
for example if google were to create a
cutting-edge botting system microsoft
could create a cutting-edge bot
detection system
i think what is more probable is that
companies artists and even individuals
in power use less intelligent bots
online
to promote whatever they want to be seen
there are even content creators and
influencers out there right now with
large followings that are completely
fake
michaela is a great example of this
michaela is a social media influencer
that is completely ai generated
her account on instagram with over 3
million followers even makes sponsored
posts and modeling for brands cashing
out around 12 million dollars offer
persona in 2020 alone and there are more
growing alongside her what happens in
the future when technology improves and
thousands of accounts like michaela are
indistinguishable from real humans we
know that many companies are publicly
using bots in less malicious ways like
national geographic's chatbot however
the possibility of using bots in a less
than savory method for product promotion
or advertising is right around the
corner possibly already here i would
love to hear what you guys think in the
comments though is the dead internet
theory something you believe in fully do
you think it's completely outrageous or
do you land somewhere in between
personally i believe that the world is
shifting online more so now than ever
and with that will come those looking to
abuse the system
though bots might not yet be as advanced
as the theory proposes as technology
progresses and we have a harder time
differentiating between what is human
and what's not there is no saying what
the future holds
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again for watching and have a good night