Dead Internet Theory Is 17% of the Way to Becoming Reality, Study Finds
A study by researchers from Imperial College London, Stanford University, and the Internet Archive found that 35.3% of new websites created between late 2022 and mid-2025 involved AI, with 17.6% fully AI-generated. While AI-generated content is rising, it does not appear to be more factually inaccurate or stylistically uniform than human-generated content. However, the study observed a reduction in diverse viewpoints and an increase in sanitized, overly positive tone in AI content. The findings align with broader trends showing bots now drive a significant portion of internet traffic.
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More than a third of new websites on the internet were created by AI, according to a paper published online by researchers from Imperial College London, Stanford University, and the Internet Archive. The study is based on data collected by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine from late 2022 (when ChatGPT kicked off the AI craze) to mid-2025. As of May 2025, the researchers found that 35.3% of all newly published websites on the internet were created with the assistance of AI, including 17.6% of websites that were completely…
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