Jean Phil went viral across social media. Now people fear the ‘dead internet theory’ is coming true

An AI-generated influencer on Instagram called Jean Phil (@jean_philanthrope) has gained a huge following, leaving some people wondering whether the so-called “dead internet theory” is becoming a reality, according to Ladbible. Its videos have attracted millions of views.

Jean Philanthrope is not a real person. It is a creepy-looking AI character with bleached blonde hair in a bob cut, a curled moustache and an unusually long neck. He wears a suit with a bow tie, and his videos often show him standing in places such as Paris, near the Eiffel Tower, or at restaurants and museums before suddenly breaking into a series of shadowboxing moves.

The account has also inspired another AI-generated character called Archibald Brown (@archibald_brown). He appears to be an English rival of Philanthrope and follows a similar format in the videos posted on his account.

The ‘dead internet theory’ is coming true

The rise of Jean Philanthrope, along with several other AI characters, brought people’s attention to the ‘dead internet theory.’ It says that instead of actual people socializing and sharing information on social media, these platforms will be filled with AI accounts and bots that post random and mostly spam content to generate traffic. When such accounts grow in number, the internet eventually becomes a ‘dead’ place with fewer human interactions.

Bots have already been active across social media for years, but generative AI has made it much easier to create convincing characters. It has now become easier to gain views by producing large amounts of video without a real person even having to appear on camera. 

The character’s name also contains a strange clue about what it really is. “Phil” comes from the Ancient Greek word for love, while “anthropos” refers to humans or humanity, making “Philanthrope” mean ‘to love humans.’ With the growing popularity, the character even has its own meme coin, the JEANPHIL token, as seen on Coinbase. 

Alessandro Galeazzi, a researcher at the University of Padova who studies social media behavior, told the BBC that checking whether videos are AI-generated requires mental effort. One of the risks of using AI irresponsibly is that people will eventually stop verifying it for authenticity, leading tot he spread of misinformation.

In an interview with Medium, Dr. Manny Ahmed, founder and CEO of OpenOrigins, said the problem could become even harder to solve as AI improves. “Generative AI polluting the entire internet. We cannot have any sort of meaningful discourse when everything is fake.”