Let a Million Paisleys Bloom: How AI Is Rebirthing the Internet

Lately I’ve seen a lot of talk about the “dead internet theory” — the claim that bots and AI-generated sludge are overwhelming the web, making it feel less human and more hollow. There’s truth in the observation that platforms are drowning in recycled, low-quality content. But I don’t believe the internet is dying. In fact, I think we’re living through its second birth.

For most of its history, the internet hasn’t been as democratic as it looked. Sure, anyone could open a social media account or post on a forum, but real power sat with the gatekeepers: coders, editors, journalists, academics. If you couldn’t code, design, or publish, you were stuck consuming rather than creating. The internet was a room that often felt empty — filled with echoes, SEO filler, and recycled takes — but still strangely hard to break into.

AI changes that.

I just built my first website with AI’s help. It’s something I’d always thought about but never managed to do. With a few prompts and corrections, I crossed a threshold that would’ve taken me weeks or months to study on my own. That barrier — the one guarded by knowledge keepers and technical experts — is gone. AI didn’t just hand me a finished product, it coached me through the process. The gatekeepers have been bypassed.

This shift reminds me of football in Brazil and Argentina. Those countries don’t dominate because every kid is a genius. They dominate because millions of kids play the game. Out of the sheer scale of participation, the Messis, Pelés, and Maradonas emerge. The more people who try, the higher the odds of greatness.

Now picture the same dynamic applied to human knowledge. Millions of people who never could code, paint, compose, or publish are experimenting with AI tools. Most of what they make won’t change the world. But out of that massive base, extraordinary breakthroughs will surface. Ideas that would never have been written, models that would never have been tested, stories that would never have been told — they’ll get their shot.

That’s the part the “dead internet” pessimists miss. Yes, AI will flood platforms with junk. But it also massively expands the talent pool. And when the pool grows, the chance of brilliance grows with it.

In that sense, AI is not suffocating the internet — it’s rewilding it. Instead of a curated feed dominated by a handful of experts and corporations, we get a messy, noisy, exhilarating landscape where anyone can step onto the pitch. It’s unpredictable, sometimes chaotic, but it’s also full of life.

We shouldn’t confuse surface polish with depth, or clarity of grammar with truth. Fact-checking and filters will still matter, maybe more than ever. But beneath the noise, I believe we’ll see a flowering of new ideas, perspectives, and connections.

This doesn’t feel like the end of the internet. It feels like its reset button has been pressed.

And when the room fills with millions of new voices — some ordinary, some extraordinary — the odds of humanity leaping forward in a “quantum sense” go way up.

Let a million paisleys bloom. Welcome to the second birth of the internet.