How the Great AI Flood Could Kill the Internet

The web has become a place of passive consumption that AI hustlers won’t hesitate to exploit

Like everything else, humans are subject to the second law of thermodynamics.

Ice melts, wood burns, glass shatters. Entropy grows and we age. But it’s the alternative version of the law that suits us best: The principle of minimum energy. It says, simplifying, that a system’s energy is lowest at the equilibrium. That is, if we can lie down instead of standing up, we will. From that principle, an even more relatable one can be derived: The principle of least action. Whatever we do, we take the route of minimum effort. We like to be efficient.

All that is just the elegant, scientific way to describe a universal reality that’s alien to no one and which, translated to the mundanity of daily life, can be captured in three words: We are lazy.

This is a story of human laziness and how it could singlehandedly destroy the already fragile online information ecosystem.

AI-generated books on bestselling lists

I woke up yesterday to sad, yet unsurprising news: AI-generated books are climbing the ranks on Amazon’s bestselling lists.