Here's the uncomfortable truth: when you're scrolling through social media, reading comments, or even searching for product reviews, there's a decent chance you're not interacting with actual humans anymore. You're engaging with AI-generated content, bot accounts, and what Ohanian calls "LinkedIn slop"—that weirdly motivational, vaguely inspirational garbage that clogs up your feed.

The "dead internet theory" used to sound like conspiracy nonsense. You know, the idea that most online activity is just bots talking to other bots while we humans are the minority. But when even Sam Altman—the CEO of OpenAI, the company literally making the AI that's flooding the internet—admits he's seeing it happen on Twitter, maybe it's time to pay attention.

The Group Chat Exodus Is Real

Ohanian mentioned something that really resonates: everyone's retreating to group chats now. And he's right. Think about it—when was the last time you posted something genuinely personal or vulnerable on Twitter or Facebook? Now think about your group chats. That's where the real conversations happen. That's where you share the unfiltered thoughts, the dumb jokes, the actual human stuff.

We've basically given up on the public internet being a place for authentic connection. Instead, we're building these little digital bunkers with our closest friends, hoping to escape the bot apocalypse outside.

But here's the kicker: even group chats aren't safe anymore. People are using ChatGPT to write their text messages now. I mean, come on. If you need AI to help you text your friends, maybe we've already lost the plot.

What Comes Next?

Ohanian thinks we need a "next generation of social media" that's "verifiably human." I'm skeptical, honestly. How do you prove someone's human without turning the internet into a dystopian ID-checking nightmare? Do we all need to submit to facial recognition? Solve endless CAPTCHAs? The cure might be worse than the disease. But I get what he's driving at. We need spaces online that feel alive again. Where you know you're talking to real people with real thoughts, not some algorithm optimized for engagement or a bot farming clicks.

There's something darkly funny about the Reddit cofounder lamenting the death of the internet. Reddit itself has become a prime example of the problem—entire subreddits filled with AI-generated rage bait, karma-farming bots reposting old content, and comment sections that feel increasingly artificial. But maybe that's why Ohanian's perspective matters. He helped build this thing, watched it grow, and now he's watching it rot from the inside. That's not cynicism—that's just being honest about what we've created. Maybe we do need to retreat to smaller, more intimate spaces. Maybe we need to demand better verification systems. Or maybe—and this might sound radical—we need to spend less time online altogether and remember what actual human connection feels like.

Because if the internet really is dying, the question isn't just how we revive it. It's whether we even should.

What do you think? Are we living in a dead internet, or is this just the natural evolution of online spaces? Drop a comment below—assuming you're not a bot.