The end of the human internet

Hey everyone, this is Nick Statt, senior producer on Decoder. We’re taking a brief publishing break while Nilay is out on vacation. We’ll resume regular programming next week, and we’ve got some great episodes in the works.

In the meantime, we wanted to share an episode from the excellent podcast The Gray Area, with host Sean Illing. In this one, Sean sat down with The Atlantic journalist Charlie Warzel to talk specifically about the state of the internet in 2026 — and what it means that it feels increasingly overrun by non-human actors.

Links:

• The Gray Area with Sean Illing | Apple Podcasts
• Galaxy Brain | The Atlantic
• The internet is all bots now | The Gray Area (YouTube)
• The feeling of control slipping away | The Atlantic
  
• How much of the internet is fake? Turns out, a lot of it, actually| New York Magazine
• How bots took over our lives | The New Yorker
• The ‘dead internet theory’ is real — and it’s killing the web | Fast Company
• The fanfare around the band Geese actually was a psyop | Wired

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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