A job applicant's bizarre reply confirmed what many developers already suspected: AI-generated content has overwhelmed online platforms. What began as promising AI assistance has devolved into a flood of low-quality submissions across every major platform. The author's AI slop detection failed initially, but the final response was unmistakably machine-generated.

The problem extends far beyond job applications. Hacker News now restricts ShowHN submissions from new accounts after an influx of vibe-coded projects. Reddit comments are increasingly astroturfed by bots promoting products, while LinkedIn timelines consist mostly of AI-generated professional updates. Even GitHub faces a barrage of nonsensical AI PRs.

This isn't just annoying—it's fundamentally breaking online discourse. Platforms are scrambling to adapt, with Hacker News explicitly banning AI-edited comments in their updated guidelines. The question isn't whether we can return to a human-centered internet, but rather how we'll distinguish authentic human interaction from increasingly sophisticated AI noise. The dead internet theory has moved from speculation to observable reality.