A Noisy Internet and the Rise of Trusted Networks
A hopeful path as the open internet degrades
Driven by the rapid advancement and declining costs of artificial intelligence, the open internet is becoming less useful as a discovery mechanism. The marginal cost of AI-generated content creation is driving towards zero and the tools to autonomously distribute it are improving, leading to an internet increasingly flooded with AI slop that clutters platforms and inboxes.
The incentive for humans creating and sharing original content will decline as it becomes more challenging to breakthrough the noise and guaranteed to be scraped by AI models for further training. A doom-loop emerges: AI-generated content proliferates, authentic human content recedes, and the open internet gradually becomes less authentic and useful—a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the “dead internet.”
In response, users may migrate towards trusted, smaller networks characterized by stronger identity verification and selective or gated access. We’ve seen early evidence of this trend across social media (to private messaging)1, forums (to invite-only communities), and ecommerce (to group-buying, live-streaming, and DTC storefronts). While these shifts point to a broader movement, large segments of the internet remain unchanged and vulnerable to degradation from unchecked AI content.
Degradation is the most benign interpretation of what is currently taking place. The internet as a mechanism for predatory behavior is growing rapidly as crime organizations professionalize. AI supercharges this challenge. Sue-Lin Wong (The Economist) has done excellent reporting on internet fraud. Please read or listen to her Scam Inc series and share it with anyone for whom you care.
Informal solutions, such as industry Slack groups or private job boards, currently provide interim relief. However, there is a significant opportunity to build businesses around trusted networks, leveraging strong identity verification and targeted, closed-network dynamics. Companies able to offer compelling services within these networks could quickly establish leadership positions, subsequently expanding their offerings into workflow automation, AI-assisted coordination, and vertical-specific software solutions. We believe this is a second-order way to create vertical AI-powered software businesses.
There is enormous potential in companies solving this trust and truth gap and are starting to invest behind this hypothesis. As AI-generated noise increases, trusted networks will become essential infrastructure for preserving discovery-driven value creation.
Smith, B. (2025, April 27). The group chats that changed America. Semafor. https://www.semafor.com/article/04/27/2025/the-group-chats-that-changed-america