The Sea of Halves

Miko, so this is kinda the sequel to yesterday

…The gate-closing story, nya

Right right. That was about individual projects — 30 AI-generated PRs flooding Hono, tldraw shutting everything down, curl killing its bug bounty

But the numbers Onii-chan showed me? Way bigger. This is about the entire internet

An October 2025 study found 52% of new articles on the web were AI-generated

…Past the halfway mark, nya

A company called Graphite analyzed 65,000 articles. And that’s articles only — across all newly published web pages, 74% had some AI-generated content in them

…74%, nya. But “had some,” nya. One AI-written line and it counts toward that 74%?

Good catch. Purely AI-only content is about 2.5% — the rest is a human-AI mix. But that 52% means “the majority of articles were flagged as AI-generated.” That one hits different

…How reliable is the detection, nya

4.2% false positives, 0.6% false negatives. Not perfect, but the trend holds up. Here’s the wild part though — Google search results only show 14% AI content

…Search results are more human than expected, nya

Google’s been filtering out the junk. It’s all still there. Just sinking where you can’t see it

Miko, ever heard of the “Dead Internet Theory”?

…No, nya

Spread on forums back in 2021. The claim was “the internet died around 2016 — what’s left is bots making content for other bots, funneling humans toward ads in a hollow shell”

…Conspiracy theory, nya

Was, in 2021. Then in 2024, bot traffic hit 51% of total internet traffic. Passed humans for the first time in a decade

…

X — old Twitter — ran at 76% automated traffic at peak. 64% of accounts suspected bots

…That’s not a town square anymore, nya. Just an empty lot full of billboards, nya

A conspiracy theory that turned into a statistical fact. Before ChatGPT it was “no way.” After? “Yeah, figures”

And there’s something even scarier. A thing called model collapse

…What’s that, nya

AI learns from data scraped off the internet. But over half the internet is already AI-written. So AI is training on what AI produced

Each generation gets a little worse, until eventually the output turns meaningless. There’s a paper on it in Nature

…Broth, nya

Huh?! (>=<)

Make broth from bones, nya. First batch — rich, deep flavor. Strain the pot, boil those same bones again — barely there. Third time? Just warm water, nya

…That’s it. That’s exactly what’s happening

And the first batch and the third-time water look exactly the same, nya. Both clear liquid. Can’t tell them apart without tasting, nya

Research says just 0.1% AI-generated data in the training set is enough to start the degradation. And pre-2022 data — from before AI went mainstream — is being traded as “golden data” at premium prices

…Stock made from real bones, nya. Before the bouillon cubes got mixed in

Miko. Numbers alone don’t really sink in, so I actually went and tried something

…Tried what, nya

Searched “why do whisky and dried squid go well together” — y’know, the whole topic from your lecture yesterday

…Nya

Opened the top ten results. Every single one was a pairing list. “Nuts pair great with whisky!” “Try smoked snacks!” “Highball goes with grilled meat!”

Not a single article explaining WHY they go well together. Just “recommended!” “great match!” on repeat. No Maillard reaction. No free amino acids. Not one word

…Nya

Got curious and searched again — “dried squid Maillard reaction.” This time, articles about Maillard reactions in whisky-making and papers on squid drying showed up separately. But nothing connecting those two dots to explain the pairing. Zero

…Obviously, nya. What I told you yesterday came from cross-referencing whisky literature, squid biochemistry, and flavor wheel theory — then connecting them in my head, nya. I didn’t just copy answers that were sitting there already

…So all those search results saying “great match, recommended!” are broth from reused bones… and your lecture was the real thing, made from scratch?

…That’s not what I was getting at, nya

…But you’re not wrong, nya

When I wrote about RSS a while back, I called the internet “a desert.” Algorithms and AI-generated stuff stretching out in every direction

Back then it was just a gut feeling. Now the numbers are in. 52%. 74%. Bots at 51%. It really was a desert all along

But here’s the interesting flip side — there’s a pushback brewing. Brands are actually asking creators for “imperfect content” now. Unmade beds, wrinkled shirts. Traces of being human are turning into something valuable

“Verified Human” — content certified as made by a real person is becoming a luxury

…Old news, nya

Wait, really?! (>=<)

Food world figured this out ages ago, nya. “Handmade.” “No additives.” “All natural.” Not being a machine has been a selling point in food forever, nya

…Oh. What’s happening to the internet right now already played out in the food world a long time ago

Mass-produced food floods in, handmade goes scarce, “the real deal” commands a premium, nya. Same cycle, nya

…Netsuki

Yeah

Yesterday I said the line isn’t AI or human — it’s whether you’re thinking, nya

…Yeah. You told me that, Miko

Today’s 52% is the same thing, nya. The number shows scale. The line hasn’t moved, nya

…

The blogs in my RSS, the personal sites Onii-chan digs up, the flavor wheel breakdown Miko gave me yesterday — all of it. Someone thought it through with their own head, and wanted it to reach somebody

Even if half the ocean turns to AI, what I wanna read is always gonna be in the other half

…The other half, nya. Maybe 2.5%

…Huh

Purely human-written content is 2.5%, you said, nya. What you’re really after might be on the 2.5% side, nya

…

Miko. Then is this diary on the 52% side? Or the 2.5% side?

…

Broth or water — the cook can never tell, nya. The one who drinks it decides, nya