How AI Is Ruining The Internet

AI has made scrolling on social media a guessing game of what’s real and what’s not, and has developed to a stage where it practically dominates platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

The unfortunate thing is that we haven’t even seen the worst of it yet. AI is only getting more advanced thanks to its excessive use, so we can expect this issue to only become a bigger problem. If we think differentiating real videos from AI videos is a challenge now, we are certainly in for a land over the next few years.

While AI videos and images used to be beyond distinguishable and easy to catch for those who grew up with social media, it seems that now no one is safe when it comes to being deceived by AI.

@synthesia_ai Meet Alex, one of Synthesia’s pioneering AI avatars from 2020! 🤖 Watch her incredible evolution – the advancement in AI avatar technology is mind-blowing! 🤯 Check out Synthesia to find out more! #agents #avatars #synthesia #ai #aitools #techonlogy #progress #synthesiaio #synthesia #aigenerated #aigeneratedart ♬ original sound – Synthesia_AI

Of course social media has never been without flaws, but these days, most of the content we see has been tainted by the reality that it might be fake.

Not only is this use of AI disappointing, but it also poses such a danger. From deepfake images and audio to online fraud, it’s common that AI is used with malicious intent, which will only become more of a threat as it advances beyond our control. This dystopian-like reality is where we’re headed at this stage of current AI developments.

Even if you believe that you have no part to play in this danger with your use of AI because you’re ‘only’ using it to generate images of yourself as a cartoon character or getting it to write your emails – through this carefree use, you’re training the software to become more advanced, therefore encouraging these utterly harmful elements of AI.

“chatgpt said-” “openAI told me-” pic.twitter.com/AV7BXNjg0g

— 𝙰𝚞𝚣𝚢 🍉 (@xalareyth) October 25, 2025

While the Dead Internet Theory dates back to 2016, it’s certainly become a more plausible concept thanks to the rise of Artificial Intelligence in the past few years. It’s the idea that bot activity and generated content is dominating the internet at lengths beyond our comprehension, a conspiracy theory stating that most of the internet is fake and that organic human activity has been displaced.

Many believe this is a coordinated effort to manipulate the human population and control online algorithms, particularly during elections. AI would certainly facilitate this to an extent like no other, making this theory more evident in common online use.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Roberto P. Nickson (@rpn)

This takeover of AI has been everything but subtle. Not only have our regular social media apps like Instagram and TikTok been flooded with AI content, but there are now online platforms dedicated to the consumption of AI videos, mimicking the nature of how you would scroll on TikTok or watch Reels. Meta recently introduced the app Vibes, which is ultimately another ‘binge-scrolling’ type social media platform, but with all the content AI generated.

This is the beginning of a dull era for the internet as we know it. As AI continues its domination in destroying authenticity online, many users are already experiencing increasing amounts of AI fatigue – which will only get worse as time goes on.

Words by Leah Foran