We’re ‘dangerously close’ to dead internet theory, says Pangram’s CEO
TechCrunch Rebecca Bellan, Theresa Loconsolo ● Covered by 2 sources
AI text and images are showing up in jobs, reviews, and claims. Pangram says we may be getting close to dead internet theory becoming real.
Based on reporting by TechCrunch, Rebecca Bellan, Theresa Loconsolo — read the original for the full story.
Summary, retelling and take written by AI under human oversight; images are AI-generated illustrations. How we work · Report an error
The web’s trust problem has moved well beyond messy social feeds. AI-made text and images are turning up in job applications, product reviews, and insurance claims, and that leaves both platforms and users trying to sort out what’s real and what isn’t.
Pangram wants to be part of the fix. The startup recently raised $9 million for its AI detection system, and Substack is now using its technology to tell readers which newsletter authors use AI. Pangram also rolled out a new tool for detecting AI images, which matters because the problem is no longer just words on a page.
On TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, co-founder and CEO Max Spero argued that the internet may be “dangerously close” to dead internet theory becoming a reality within a few years. That’s a grim line, but it fits the moment: more AI content means more noise, and more noise means trust gets expensive.
Spero’s bigger point is that a simple AI-or-human label may be the wrong fight. Figuring out how much AI was involved could be harder, but also more useful, especially when the output sits somewhere between assistance and full generation.
There’s also a darker edge here. False positives can have real consequences, especially when sensitive images are involved. And Spero thinks some writing work at the low end may already be gone for good, while genuinely strong human writing could become more valuable as everything else gets easier to fake.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
This is the part of the AI boom that companies love to talk around: once everything can be generated, proving something was made by a human becomes the premium feature. Pangram is basically selling the trust tax, and the market is going to pay it because the alternative is chaos with better formatting. The bigger joke is that we may need machines to tell us when machines are lying to us.
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