In 2016, a theory emerged on forums, claiming that the internet was run by bots and algorithms. They were being unleashed in a coordinated effort by the U.S government and tech giants like Google to influence public sentiment and spending, and reduce real human interactions. Dubbed by many as a lunatic fringe conspiracy fantasy at the time, it has now unquestionably become a reality. 

In “Undead Internet Theory” (2025) UK-based post-disciplinary duo Y7 (Hannah Cobb & Declan Colquitt) offer a speculative response to Dead Internet Theory, using interviews with a range of leading artists, professors, and researchers in Digital Culture such as Simon DeDeo, Terence Broad, Eddie Mitchel, POSTPOSTPOST, Idil Galp, Thomas Sommerer, Lukas Amacher and Anna Rose Kerr. If the internet is an AI generated ghost town, are we banished to being mere specters, or can we abandon it altogether? As well as unpacking emerging visions of the ‘Agentic Web’, the work also considers how the complexity of large-scale digital systems might give rise to new cultural artefacts and generate models of culture not centred on — or limited by — a preoccupation with the human experience. Is the internet dead, dying or transforming into something even stranger than death?