Alexis Ohanian, who runs venture capital firm Seven Seven Six and oversees more than $1.3 billion in assets, says artificial intelligence is reshaping the internet in ways that could undermine human communities and online businesses. He sees sports as a source of genuine community in an era of “AI slop” and manipulated content, while remaining optimistic that AI could deliver major advances in medicine.
Ohanian warns of a more automated internet
Ohanian supports the “dead internet theory,” the idea that much of the activity and content online is generated by bots. The rise of large language models has accelerated that trend by enabling AI agents to outperform human users in some online environments.
“The internet I grew up with was really the first one built for humans, and the user interface and experience will be gone,” Ohanian said. “More than for people.”
He said sports remain important because they create real communities at a time when much of the internet is increasingly shaped by automated or manipulated content.
AI has increased Reddit’s value to model developers
Generative AI has benefited platforms such as Reddit in some respects. Reddit has licensed its archives of human conversations to companies including Google and OpenAI for training AI models.
“Platforms like ours have become extremely valuable to LLMs,” Ohanian said.
However, he also said the technology is creating challenges for Reddit’s business. Reddit shares plunged 29% last week after the platform warned that Google’s AI-powered search was reducing referral traffic.
Commercial incentives could distort online conversations
Ohanian is also concerned that the growing commercial value of online conversations could make them less trustworthy. “The reason the internet has been so manipulated is because it’s incredibly valuable to do so,” he said.
Reddit recently announced that users will have to sign in as the platform seeks to combat third-party scraping and maintain user engagement. Ohanian declined to say whether he supported the move, but argued that online services need a way to verify human participation without making users uncomfortable.
“There has to be a demonstrable humanity on the internet without it feeling creepy,” he said.
Ohanian remains optimistic about AI in medicine
Despite his concerns about the technology’s risks, Ohanian remains optimistic about AI’s potential benefits. He is particularly interested in the medical advances it could enable.
“There’s still a very real possibility that this technology will definitely cause significant damage,” he said. “I think we need to be calm about how we’re building and what we’re doing, but still, you can’t help but look at all the things that clearly could be improved.”
Source: www.wired.com