PhysicsForums: How AI-Generated Posts Are Killing the Internet?

An investigative article exposes the widespread falsification of user posts on PhysicsForums, a scientific community founded in 2001, with AI-generated content retroactively added to the site. This microcosm highlights the 'Dead Internet Theory' – the idea that much of the internet isn't human-created. The article analyzes how AI-generated content undermines the authenticity of the forum and the compromises websites make for survival, prompting reflections on the future of the internet and human-computer interaction. The authors examine the ethical implications of using LLMs to generate content under the guise of existing users, blurring the lines between human and machine-generated information.