The internet will never be useless. There will always be a large number of sites that are not capitalist hellholes that only exist to steal user’s data or scam users or do other malicious things. This may be down to things like credit unions, federated social media, and non-profits that exist to make the world better, but there will always be something that is out there that keeps it from being useless.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
No doubt that there will be people who still have morals and will run sites and services that don’t completely screw people.
But at some point, you won’t be able to tell which are legit, and which aren’t. AI generated websites can make any scam site look completely legitimate, fake thousands of testimonials, have bots post about it on every major website (Reddit, YouTube, etc.) without being caught, etc.
The currency of the internet is no longer about what’s valuable to users, but what’s valuable to bad actors, data thieves, and marketers.
There will be a tipping point when the bad far, far outweighs the good, and I’m curious to know when society decides that the internet isn’t worth using anymore.
spankmonkey@lemmy.world 2 months ago
We are well past the tipping point of malicious websites being indistinguishable from legit sites unless tou pay attention to extra informatjon like the address bar. I would say that most of the websites I used to enjoy have gone to shit between ads and ditching their better writers for cheaper staff or AI. Most of the internet is crap.
But there is stilll enough helpful content that the whoe thing isn’t worthless and I doubt it ever will be.
Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
The people creating that content will fade away.
They are going to be competing with a tireless algorithm that can out out 1000x the content they can, with next to no “staff”.
Those AI content creators will be making money for someone, and legitimate content creators won’t be able to keep up unless: they use AI content creation; or have a business model that will probably result in all legitimate websites being paywalled, filled with ads, or becoming a marketing platform for brands (worse than what modern day YouTube is like).