If you seek for “Shrimp Jesus” on Facebook, chances are you’ll come across dozens of images of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated crustaceans associated in various forms with a stereotypical image of Jesus Christ.
Some of those hyperrealistic images have received greater than 20,000 likes and comments. So what exactly is occurring here?
The “dead web theory” has an evidence: AI and bot-generated content have overtaken the human-made web. But where does this concept come from and does it have any basis in point of fact?
What is the dead web theory?
The dead web theory essentially states that activity and content on the web, including social media accounts, is predominantly created and automatic by artificial intelligence agents.
These agents can quickly create posts designed to drive engagement (clicks, likes, comments) on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, alongside AI-generated images. As for Shrimp Jesus, the AI seems to have learned that it's the newest, latest mixture of absurdity and spiritual iconography to go viral.
But the dead web theory goes even further. Many of the accounts engaging in such content look like managed by artificial intelligence agents. This creates a vicious circle of artificial engagement that has no clear agenda and now not involves people in any respect.
Harmless engagement farming or sophisticated propaganda?
At first glance, the motivation of those accounts to generate interest seems obvious: social media engagement results in promoting revenue. If an individual creates an account that receives excessive engagement, they could receive a portion of promoting revenue from social media organizations like Meta.
So does the dead web theory stop at harmless engagement farming? Or perhaps beneath the surface lies a classy, well-financed effort to support autocratic regimes, attack opponents and spread propaganda?
While the Shrimp Jesus phenomenon could seem harmless (albeit bizarre), there could also be a longer-term trick behind it.
As these AI-driven accounts have increasingly followers (many fake, some real), the high follower count legitimizes the account to real users. This means there’s a military of accounts being created on the market. Highly followed accounts that might be provided by those with the best bid.
This is crucial as social media is now the first source of stories for a lot of users all over the world. In Australia, 46% of 18 to 24 12 months olds have made social media their primary source of stories over the past 12 months. This is up from 28% in 2022, replacing traditional channels similar to radio and tv.
Bot-powered disinformation
There is already strong evidence that social media is being manipulated by these bloated bots to influence public opinion through disinformation – and has been doing so for years.
In 2018, a study analyzed 14 million tweets over a ten-month period in 2016 and 2017. It found that bots were present on social media essentially involved when disseminating articles from unreliable sources. Accounts with high follower counts legitimized misinformation and disinformation, leading real users to consider, engage with, and reshare the content posted by bots.
This approach to manipulating social media has been noted to occur following mass shootings within the United States. In 2019, a study found bot-generated posts on X (formerly Twitter) contribute significantly to the general public discussionThis serves to bolster or distort potential narratives surrounding extreme events.
More recently, several large-scale pro-Russian disinformation campaigns have targeted this undermine support for Ukraine And Promoting pro-Russian sentiment.
The coordinated effort uncovered by activists and journalists used bots and AI to create and spread fake information, reaching thousands and thousands of social media users.
Alone on supportive the continued war against Ukraine.
At this scale the impact is important. Some reports even found that it accounted for nearly half of all web traffic in 2022 created by bots. With recent advances in generative AI – like OpenAI’s ChatGPT models and Google’s Gemini – the standard of faux content will only improve.
Social media organizations try to crack down on abuse of their platforms. In particular, Elon Musk has investigated requiring X users to pay for membership to stop bot farms.
Social media giants have the power to remove large amounts of detected bot activity in the event that they wish. (Bad news for our friendly Shrimp Jesus.)
Think concerning the dead web
The dead web theory doesn't say that almost all of your personal interactions on the web are fake.
However, it’s an interesting perspective to take a look at the Internet. That it isn’t any longer for people and now not about people – on this sense, the Internet we knew and loved is “dead”.
The freedom to create and share our thoughts on the web and social media is what makes it so powerful. Of course, it is that this power that bad actors want to regulate.
The dead web theory is a reminder to be skeptical and important when using social media and other web sites.
Every interaction, every trend and particularly the “overall mood” could well be synthetic. Designed to simply change the way in which you perceive the world.
