--- title: "Huge Proportion of Internet Is AI-Generated Slime, Researchers Find" description: "A recent study by Amazon AI researchers found that a \"shocking amount of the web\" comprises poor-quality AI-generated and translated content." date: "2024-01-19" modified: "2024-01-19" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/internet-ai-generated-slime" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" tags: - "ai" - "ai-generated content" - "large language models" - "the digest" --- # Huge Proportion of Internet Is AI-Generated Slime, Researchers Find ![A recent study by Amazon AI researchers found that a "shocking amount of the web" comprises poor-quality AI-generated and translated content.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Garbage Pail Kids The internet's steady fall into the AI-garbled dumpster continues. As [*Vice* reports](), a [recent stud]()y conducted by researchers at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI Lab found that a "shocking amount of the web" is already made up of poor-quality AI-generated and translated content. The paper is yet to be peer-reviewed, but "shocking" feels like the right word. According to the study, *over half* — specifically, 57.1 percent — of all of the sentences on the internet have been translated into two or more other languages. The poor quality and staggering scale of these translations suggest that large language model (LLM) -powered AI models were used to both create *and* translate the material. The phenomenon is especially prominent in "lower-resource languages," or languages with less readily available data with which to more effectively train AI models. In other words, in what the researchers believe to be a ploy to garner clickbait-driven ad revenue, AI is being used to first generate poor-quality English-language content at a remarkable scale, and then AI-powered machine translation (MT) tools transcribe said content into several other languages. The translated material gets worse each time — and as a result, entire regions of the web are filling to the brim with [degrading AI-scrambled copies of copies](). "Machine-generated, multi-way parallel translations not only dominate the total amount of translated content on the web in lower-resource languages," the AWS researchers write in the paper, "it also constitutes a large fraction of the total web content in those languages."' ## Dead Internet Theory This wouldn't be the first warning sign of generative AI's existential threat to the web's usability. Google, for example, has been forced to grapple with the [persistence of AI-generated material]() in its [search]() and — [as a new *4o4 Media* report shows]() — its Google News algorithms. Amazon has also had a notably rough go with AI content; in addition to its serious [AI-generated book listings]() problem, a [recent *Futurism* report revealed]() that the e-commerce giant is flooded with products featuring titles such as "I cannot fulfill this request it goes against OpenAI use policy." Elsewhere, beyond specific platforms, numerous [reports]() and [studies]() have made clear that [AI-generated content abounds]() throughout the web. But while the English-language web is experiencing a steady — if palpable — AI creep, this new study suggests that the issue is far more pressing for many non-English speakers. What's worse, the prevalence of AI-spun gibberish might make effectively training AI models in lower-resource languages nearly impossible in the long run. To train an advanced LLM, AI scientists need large amounts of high-quality data, which they generally get by scraping the web. If a given area of the internet is *already* overrun by nonsensical AI translations, the possibility of training advanced models in rarer languages could be stunted before it even starts. **More on AI content:** [*Amazon Is Selling Products With AI-Generated Names Like "I Cannot Fulfill This Request It Goes Against OpenAI Use Policy"*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()