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  • Dead Internet? A Third of New Websites Are AI-Generated, Says Stanford

    Dead Internet? A Third of New Websites Are AI-Generated, Says Stanford

    In brief

    • By mid-2025, 35% of newly published websites were AI-generated or AI-assisted, up from zero before ChatGPT’s November 2022 launch.
    • The confirmed effects are semantic contraction and artificial positivity—not misinformation or stylistic homogeneity, despite what most people believe.
    • At 35% AI prevalence, model collapse risk shifts from a theoretical concern to an empirical one for the next generation of foundation models.

    A new study has a number for how much of the internet is now AI-generated: 35%. That’s the share of newly published websites classified as AI-generated or AI-assisted by mid-2025, according to research from Stanford University, Imperial College London, and the Internet Archive. The figure was essentially zero before ChatGPT launched in November 2022.

    “I find the sheer speed of the AI takeover of the web quite staggering,” Jonáš Doležal, researcher at Imperial College London and co-author of the paper, told 404 Media. “After decades of humans shaping it, a significant portion of the internet has become defined by AI in just three years.”

    The study, titled “The Impact of AI-Generated Text on the Internet,” drew on 33 months of website snapshots from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and used an AI text detector called Pangram v3 to classify each page.

    The confirmed harms: vibes, not facts

    Researchers tested six hypotheses about what AI content does to the web. Only two held up under data scrutiny.

    The first: We’re turning into a horde of dumb NPCs acting in the same way… Or more scientifically put, the web is becoming less semantically diverse.

    AI-generated sites showed pairwise semantic similarity scores 33% higher than human-written ones. The same ideas keep getting expressed in nearly the same ways.

    The paper suggests the online Overton window may be narrowing, not through censorship or coordinated campaigns, but because language models optimize for outputs close to their training distribution.

    The second: The web is getting aggressively cheerful.

    AI content showed positive sentiment scores more than 107% higher than human content. Researchers tie this to the well-documented sycophantic tendencies of LLMs—trained on human approval signals, they produce text that feels sanitized, friction-free, and relentlessly upbeat.

    An internet flooded with cheerful, homogenized content may marginalize human dissent at scale without anyone pulling a lever.

    Despite widespread public belief, the study found no statistically significant evidence that AI content is making the internet less factually accurate. Researchers found no meaningful correlation between AI prevalence and factual error rate.

    The stylistic monoculture hypothesis—AI flattening individual voices into a generic uniform register—was the belief respondents held most strongly (83% agreed). The data didn’t confirm it. Character-level analysis found no statistically significant increase in stylistic homogeneity tied to AI prevalence.

    The model collapse problem just got real

    The broader stakes go beyond discourse quality. At 35% AI prevalence, the theoretical risk of model collapse—where future models degrade after training on AI-generated data—shifts from academic concern to empirical reality. Future foundation models trained on contemporary web crawls will inevitably ingest data that is substantially AI-generated and measurably less semantically diverse.

    The team is now working with the Internet Archive to turn the study into a continuous, live monitoring tool, tracking AI’s share of the web in real time rather than as a one-off snapshot.

    A U.S. survey conducted alongside the study found most Americans already believe all six negative hypotheses, including the ones the data doesn’t support. People who use AI infrequently were 12% more likely to believe in the harms than frequent users. Dead Internet Theory believers, meet the data: The internet isn’t dead, but 35% of what’s new is probably zombie content in some way.

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  • MPX Acquires Sean Whalen-Directed Horror Film ‘Swipe’ Ahead of Cannes Sales Launch (EXCLUSIVE)

    MPX Acquires Sean Whalen-Directed Horror Film ‘Swipe’ Ahead of Cannes Sales Launch (EXCLUSIVE)

    Motion Picture Exchange (MPX) has acquired world sales rights to U.S. indie horror film “Swipe,” directed by Sean Whalen and featuring a murderous family of sadistic mute women.

    MPX will be presenting the female-driven chiller to buyers at the upcoming Cannes Marché du Film. 

    “Swipe” is the second feature by actor-director Whalen, whose acting credits include “Twister.” Whalen previously directed the well-received horror film “Crust,” about a lonely laundromat owner who keeps leftover socks from customers, which is playing on major streaming platforms in the U.S. and currently has a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. 

    “Swipe” centers on a young woman named Rina trying to save her brother Mike from a sadistic, mute family of female captors after a dating app hook-up leads to his abduction.

    Rina and Mike’s friends’ search draws them to the isolated Doyle property that is “the home of an elderly matriarch, Abigail, and her three mute daughters; Marla, Willa and Elsa, who live by their own brutal code,” the synopsis says. “Shaped by years of abuse and driven by vengeance, they don’t just hunt men…they punish them. Rina must outsmart this sadistic family, who has taken their suffering and turned it into their own brand of playful revenge.”

    The “Swipe” cast comprises Hana Mae Lee (“Pitch Perfect”), Elaine Hendrix (“Parent Trap”), Ray Santiago (“Meet the Fockers”), Dominique Columbus (“Road House”), Alex Rich (“The Patient”), Phillip Garcia (“Clean Slate”), Rebekah Kennedy (“Traumatika”), Bryan Fitzgerald (“American Rust”) and Whalen.

    The film is produced by Whalen and partner Sheena Whalen for MSYL Productions, and Rebekah Kennedy and Brandon Davis for Slight Entertainment. Chris Sergi (“A Wounded Fawn”) also produces.

    The “Swipe” screenplay is by Mark Mardini.

    “‘Swipe’ is very special to me for two distinctive reasons,” Whalen said in a statement. “One, in the late ’90s a graduate from Chapman film program [Mardini] wanted to have lunch with me to tell me that he would like to write a movie so I could have bigger roles because he felt I was not being utilized in Hollywood. We worked together for years on a few projects, including an award-winning short film. Mark Mardini became a dear friend. We remained friends and years later he wrote this wonderful script and I had the opportunity to help get it made.”

    He added, “The second reason is, I am so excited to give the world four sadistic women that are right up there with Michael Myers and Ghost Face. I fear that this is lacking in the horror space and I’m so glad to be able to tip the scales a little and give four iconic women characters that are just as terrifying as the murderous screen villains of all time.”

    Commented MPX president and co-founder Ryan Bury: “In ‘Swipe,’ Sean Whalen takes another confident step forward behind the camera, delivering a sharp and enthralling horror film with an unpredictable edge. In horror, unique characters matter, and my God has Sean and the team created a memorable group of murderous women that I’m confident will be Halloween and Con costumes for years to come.” 

  • PMC Vice Chairman Gerry Byrne to Receive Honorary Degree From Fordham University

    PMC Vice Chairman Gerry Byrne to Receive Honorary Degree From Fordham University

    Gerry Byrne, vice chairman of Variety parent company PMC and a longtime media business executive, will be recognized by his alma mater, New York’s Fordham University, with an honorary doctorate of humane letters at the school’s commencement ceremony on May 16.

    Byrne will receive the honorary degree alongside Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and “Today” veteran Hoda Kotb, who is also this year’s commencement speaker.

    Byrne graduated from Fordham Preparatory School in 1962. He graduated from Fordham College in 1966. He earned his commission as a U.S. Marine officer through a Marine Corps training program while attending Fordham. He received the Navy Achievement Medal with Combat V for his service in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. Byrne’s many other career kudos include the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award. Byrne was honored with the Navy’s highest civilian award last year as a commendation for his longstanding support for veterans and his work with numerous nonprofits.

    Fordham called Byrne “an entrepreneur, trailblazing media executive and advocate for military veterans” in announcing the honorary degree.

    Byrne’s long career in media and publishing includes serving as the first publisher of Crain’s New York Business, and working as a senior executive at producer Norman Lear’s ACT III Communications. During his long run as publisher of Variety, Byrne steered its transformation into a diversified global brand.

    Corrigan earned her undergraduate degree in English from Fordhamin 1977 before going on to complete master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. At present she is the Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

  • Pump.fun has been using all its revenue to burn its token. Now it’s changing course

    Pump.fun has been using all its revenue to burn its token. Now it’s changing course

    Solana-based token issuance launchpad Pump.fun has, to date, run a simple model: every dollar of revenue has gone toward buying and burning its own token. In theory, the constant supply reduction was supposed to steadily prop up $PUMP‘s price and align the token’s value with the platform’s success.

    But that model is now history after a review of the previous 100% buyback showed it wasn’t fully working in the company’s favor.

    The firm said in an X post that it would shift to a 50/50 split, in which half of all future net revenue from the Pump.fun bonding curve, PumpSwap, and Terminal, the company’s three core products, flows into an irreversible smart contract that automatically buys $PUMP on the open market and burns it for the next year.

    The other half stays with the company for product investment, hiring, marketing, and potential acquisitions. The previous policy was to allocate 100% of revenue to buybacks.

    Pump said it had burned all $PUMP tokens it had bought back from the open market over the past nine months, or roughly 36% of that token’s circulating supply, in two transactions on Solana.

    Burn refers to the permanent removal of tokens from circulation, usually by sending them to a crypto wallet address not controlled or held by anyone. $PUMP‘s burn announcement is one of the largest single-event supply reductions in crypto history by share of circulating tokens.

    Co-founder Alon Cohen explained the change in a follow-up post on X, arguing the business needs the other half of revenue for product investment, hiring, marketing, and potential acquisitions, to keep Pump.fun alive for “decades to come.”

    Part of the reason the move was necessary is the price chart.

    $PUMP has spent most of 2026 trading sideways below its launch valuation despite using 100% of revenue for token buybacks for nine months and generating over $1 billion in lifetime revenue.

    “Despite being one of the biggest revenue generating platforms in crypto and allocating 100% of revenue to buybacks, we believe there was a lack of trust in the longevity of the business, the certainty of buybacks, and what the bought-back tokens would be used for,” the team said on X.

    today is a turning point for $PUMP and pump fun

    I want to give more context on the bigger picture and where we’re actually going.

    over the past ~9 months, 100% of revenue went into buybacks. basically no other platform in crypto has done that at this scale.

    however, we… https://t.co/3WTAHH1fUX

    — alon (@a1lon9) April 28, 2026

    There is a bear case, however. Memecoin launchpad volume is cyclical and mean-reverting. Pump.fun’s gross protocol revenue totaled $971.37 million in 2025 but is annualizing to roughly $320 million so far in 2026, DefiLlama data shows.

    The 50% of declining revenue produces smaller burns than 100% of peak revenue did.

    The bull case is the math on remaining tokens. Burning 36% of the $PUMP that was in circulation removes a large block of supply that could have hit the market.

    Locking 50% of future revenue into more burns means more tokens get permanently destroyed every week, regardless of what the team decides later.

    If Pump.fun keeps generating even half the revenue it did in 2025, the ongoing burns would retire a meaningful chunk of what remains over the next 12 months. Less supply against steady demand would form a bullish setup that the token may not have had since launch.

    $PUMP rose 6.9% in the 24 hours after the Wednesday announcement. Its annualized fees run at $802 million and revenue at $416 million per DefiLlama, putting Pump.fun in the rare category of crypto projects generating real cash flows at scale.

  • Tether leads Belo’s $14 million raise to expand stablecoin payments across Latin America

    Belo, a Latin America-focused digital wallet that uses crypto rails for payments, has raised $14 million in a Series A round led by stablecoin issuer Tether.

    The round included Titan Fund, The Venture City, Mindset Ventures and G2.

    The company plans to use the funds to expand into Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, while scaling its infrastructure across the region. It is also deepening its presence in Brazil, targeting freelancers, remote workers and others who move money across borders.

    Founded in Buenos Aires in 2021, Belo offers a digital wallet that lets users hold and transfer local currencies alongside digital dollars. The platform has grown to more than 3 million users across Latin America.

    “We reached this round with three years of profitable operations and a product that people use in their daily lives,” said CEO Manuel Beaudroit. “This round is about scaling.”

    Stablecoins — cryptocurrencies with prices tied to fiat money — have gained traction across emerging markets as an alternative to traditional banking systems, especially in regions with high inflation, currency volatility or limited access to dollar-denominated accounts. In Latin America, they are often used to store value, send remittances and bypass costly foreign exchange systems.

    Belo combines payments, foreign exchange and cross-border transfers in a single flow, aiming to reduce friction in a region where moving money between countries remains slow and expensive. Users often rely on multiple services to send or receive funds, adding costs and delays.

    The company’s model uses crypto infrastructure behind the scenes to streamline that process. Tether’s backing points to a broader push to expand stablecoin-based payment systems in markets where demand for dollar-linked assets remains strong.

    Beaudroit framed Belo’s approach as part of a wider shift, with crypto tools starting to fill gaps left by traditional finance, in an interview with CoinDesk.

    “Crypto will be starting to do what the traditional financial services haven’t done, which is servicing people and their companies,” he said.

    Belo said it is also hiring across product, engineering and operations as it expands its regional footprint.

  • Babak Jalali Drops First Look at Bill Nighy-Starring ‘A Town in Nova Scotia’

    Babak Jalali Drops First Look at Bill Nighy-Starring ‘A Town in Nova Scotia’

    A first look at Babak Jalali‘s Billy Nighy-starring feature, A Town in Nova Scotia, has dropped ahead of Paradise City Sales launching worldwide sales at Cannes.

    His fifth film after presenting previous works in Locarno (Frontier Blues), Rotterdam (Radio Treams) and the Berlinale (Land), the Iranian director gained international recognition with Sundance’s Fremont.

    A Town in Nova Scotia is about a widowed Irish senior, Leon, played by the Love Actually star, who gets a plea from his daughter to join her in Nova Scotia. Instead, he launches a crusade to make his aging Liverpool building safer after news of a tower fire in London. On a mission alongside his neighbor and closest friend, Salah (Makram J Khoury), Leon turns their fellow residents’ quiet lives upside down in what is described as “a warm story of friendsip, stubbornness, and small acts of defiance.”

    The photo released Wednesday shows Nighy and Khoury riding a lakeside carousel.

    The film was co-written with Carolina Cavalli, who collaborated with Jalali on Fremont. Further creatives include production designer Paulina Rzeszowska, cinematographer Crystel Fournier, costume designer Jessica Schofield, hair and makeup designer Caroline Rose, and casting director Lucy Pardee.

    Jalali said his new movie is about community and camaraderie in the latter phase of life, and choosing how and with whom you want to spend that phase. “I’m thrilled to be working with Paradise City Sales again after the wonderful experience I had with the whole team there on my previous film Fremont. I couldn’t wish for a more thoughtful, ambitious, dedicated and kind set of people to take this film out into this big, strange world.”

    Executive producers are Kristin Irving for BBC Film, Ama Ampadu for the BFI, Christopher Moll for Liverpool Film Office, Sonny Gill and Peter O’Leary for Hoopsa Films, Naomi Despres and Michèle Marshall for Desmar, Brad Noel and Mariyah Dosani for Calculus. The film was developed with BBC Film, and U.K. distribution will be announced at a later date.

    Nighy is represented by Independent Talent Group, UTA and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandlebaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein and Public Eye Communications. Khoury is represented by Paul Becker. Jalali is represented by Independent Talent Group, CAA and Cinetic.

  • FIFA confirms new World Cup rule on yellow cards to reduce suspensions

    FIFA confirms new World Cup rule on yellow cards to reduce suspensions

    Single yellow cards will be cancelled after the group stage and then again after the quarterfinals, FIFA says.

    Published On 29 Apr 2026

    FIFA has tweaked World Cup rules on yellow cards to ensure fewer players are suspended for key elimination games, with single yellow cards to be cancelled after the group stage and after the quarterfinals.

    An extra amnesty for yellow cards – wiping player disciplinary records twice during the expanded tournament in North America – was proposed at a meeting on Tuesday of FIFA’s ruling council.

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    Later, FIFA issued a statement approving the change.

    “Reflective of the expanded format with an extra knockout round, the FIFA Council confirmed an amendment to the regulations for the FIFA World Cup 2026 whereby single yellow cards in the final competition will be cancelled after the group stage and then again after the quarterfinals,” it said.

    At the last World Cup, players had to serve a one-game ban if they were shown a yellow card in two different games, but single yellow cards were cancelled at previous tournaments after the quarterfinals stage. That ensured no player would miss the final for getting a yellow card in the semifinal.

    The expanded 48-team World Cup format, with an extra round-of-32 knockout stage, led to the FIFA review aimed at helping keep players on the pitch.

    FIFA cleared the disciplinary records of players who have one yellow card after the three-game group stage, so they start the knockout phase afresh. A second amnesty after the quarterfinals will apply to players who got one yellow card during the three previous knockout rounds and whose teams advanced to the semifinals.

    FIFA also announced on Tuesday an increase in financial resources to be distributed to all 48 World Cup participating teams by a further 15 percent, totalling $871m, or just over $18m per team.

    The new figures include an increase in preparation money from $1.5m to $2.5m per team and an increase in qualification money from $9m to $10m.

    The World Cup will be played from June 11 to July 19 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

  • ‘Fool Me Once’ Star Michelle Keegan Reunites With Harlan Coben and Netflix for ‘The Woods’ Series Adaptation

    ‘Fool Me Once’ Star Michelle Keegan Reunites With Harlan Coben and Netflix for ‘The Woods’ Series Adaptation

    “Fool Me Once” star Michelle Keegan is reuniting with Netflix and Harlan Coben for another of the writer’s adaptations, “The Woods.”

    She will star in the eight-episode series alongside Tom Bateman, Mandeep Dhillon and Pearce Quigley, among others.

    “The Woods” tells the story of barrister and single father Paul ‘Cope’ Copeland, whose sister Camille vanished from a summer camp two decades earlier. After her disappearance tore his family apart, Cope was determined to rebuild his life but, twenty years later, the traumatic event returns to haunt him after the body of a man who was believed to have been murdered alongside Camille unexpectedly turns up. With the help of Cope’s first love, Lucy, the lawyer is determined to turn every skeleton out of the closet in his search for answers – and to find out whether Camille might still be alive.

    Rounding out the cast are Rade Sherbedgia, James Buckley, Shannon Watson, Pamela Nomvete, Kerry Howard, Roger Barclay, Simon Lowe, Mila Moring, Dean Fagan, Tom Allen, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Charlotte Beaumont, Christopher Harper, Tre Jordan Holmes, Nicola Stephenson, Harry Goodson-Bevan, Joe Dolan, Thea Achillea, Flynn Allen and Hannah McIver.

    Keegan’s last Harlan Coben project, “Missing You,” garnered 107.5 million global views and became one of Netflix’s most popular shows of 2024, including being the most-watched series for the first half of that year.

    “‘The Woods’ is a haunting and very personal story. It has everything you expect from us — twisty, turning, gasp-inducing — but at the core is a story of old love and yearning,” said Coben. Working with a cast led by Tom Bateman, Michelle Keegan, Mandeep Dhillon, Pearce Quigley, James Buckley, Tom Allen – it’s an embarrassment of riches.”

    Coben’s longtime U.K. collaborators Quay Street Productions (part of ITV Studios) return to produce the series, which is written by Danny Brocklehurst (“Fool Me Once”), Charlotte Coben, Tom Farrelly and Joe Forrest.

    Directors are Andy De Emmony, Claire Tailyour and Isher Sahota.

    Coben exec produces alongside Nicola Shindler, Richard Fee, Danny Brocklehurst, Charlotte Coben. Will McDonagh is producer and Orla Maxwell casting director.

  • Bitcoin rebounds from key support as traders eye renewed push toward $80,000

    Bitcoin rebounds from key support as traders eye renewed push toward $80,000

    Bitcoin is trading around $77,700, up 1.8% since midnight UTC, after rebounding from $75,650, a price that had served as an upper barrier during last week’s rally.

    The rebound suggests a bullish shift, with $75,650 now acting as support — a level that could prove crucial if bitcoin is to make another attempt at breaking through $80,000.

    Ether ($ETH) is at $2,344, and its chart is showing more bearish signals than bitcoin’s, having made a series of lower highs since April 17.

    The broader market is higher, as U.S. investors anticipate a slew of tech company earnings. Alphabet (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta (META) are all due to report after the closing bell on Wednesday.

    Nasdaq 100 futures are up by 0.25% in pre-market trading.

    Derivatives positioning

    • Bitcoin futures open interest (OI) fell to 715.60K $BTC, the lowest since April 9 and notably below the monthly high of 800K $BTC. The decline shows steady de-risking as the spot price rally slows near $80,000, and some analysts point to potential for a continued bear market.
    • OI has largely held steady across $ETH, SOL, and XRP over the past 24 hours.
    • Traders, meanwhile, continue to deploy capital in $DOGE futures, lifting the OI by 18% in a single day to 16.06 billion tokens, the highest since Oct. 10.
    • With perpetual funding rates steady at around an annualized 4% and the highest OI-adjusted cumulative volume delta among majors, the $DOGE activity appears to be driven more by fresh directional positioning than overheated leverage, pointing to sustained bullish interest rather than a crowded, fragile trade.
    • The Binance-listed SHIB futures are flashing a similar bullish setup. Rising activity in these non-serious tokens suggests a build-up of speculative froth, a pattern often seen ahead of broader market pullbacks.
    • The market for crude oil futures listed on Binance is also heating up, with open interest up 27% as prices top $100, presenting a headwind for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
    • The slide in bitcoin’s 30-day implied volatility index, BVIV, continues, and it’s now probing three-month lows below 42%. It shows the market has become desensitized to macro risks such as an Iran war and elevated oil prices. The ether volatility index, EVIV, is displaying similar trends.
    • The story in the Deribit-listed options market remains the same: Puts for both $BTC and $ETH remain pricier than calls, indicating downside concerns. These reservations are more pronounced in bitcoin than ether.

    Token talk

    • The altcoin market showed signs of strength on Wednesday, buoyed by previously oversold conditions.
    • The CoinDesk Memecoin Select Index (CDMEME) is the best-performing benchmark, adding 2.3% since midnight UTC, while the DeFi Select Index (DFX) gained by 2.2%.
    • The bitcoin dominant CoinDesk 20 (CD20) and CoinDesk 5 (CD5) both rose 1.7%.
    • Popular memecoins $DOGE, PEPE and FLOKI were among the top-gaining altcoins in the CoinDesk 100 (CD100), advancing 10%, 6.3% and 6.2%, respectively.
    • CoinMarketCap’s “Altcoin Season” indicator ticked up to 41/100 from 39/100 overnight, demonstrating relative strength in the sector.
  • What’s the Latest Situation in Bitcoin? What Could Happen to the Price? Analysts Explain the Upside and Downside Levels to Watch!

    What’s the Latest Situation in Bitcoin? What Could Happen to the Price? Analysts Explain the Upside and Downside Levels to Watch!

    Amid ongoing uncertainty stemming from the US-Iran conflict, Bitcoin ($BTC) remains trapped in a narrow range. While the $BTC price has been struggling to hold above $75,000 in recent days, one analyst argued that selling pressure on Bitcoin has eased.

    Speaking to Coindesk, Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of Split Research, said that Bitcoin sellers sensitive to macroeconomic uncertainty have already exited the market and selling pressure has decreased.

    At this point, the analyst noted that Bitcoin’s relative calm signaled a shift in the market structure.

    “The Bitcoin surplus has been resolved, and those concerned about macroeconomic changes or quantitative anxieties like quantum technology have already exited the market. This has made selling pressure significantly weaker than it was a few months ago.”

    The analyst also added that $BTC is less sensitive to regulatory rumors or central bank policies than people think.

    Ebtikar concluded by stating that Bitcoin is currently in a stable price range and a sudden wave of sell orders is not imminent.

    Lastly, Bitget analysts also assessed the current situation in Bitcoin. According to the analysts, the $75,000 level, which has held since the end of March, is a very important support level for Bitcoin.

    However, a drop below this level could open the door to further declines. A bounce and breakout above $80,000 from current levels would preserve Bitcoin’s bullish trend and pave the way for a retest of the resistance level that has been rejected in every rally since February.

    *This is not investment advice.