How can anyone really know who on the internet is real? That is the basis of what is known as the dead internet theory, a "joke-cum-conspiracy that says if you're reading these words online, you're the last person on the internet", said Prospect. "Everyone else is a bot."

The theory is that the vast majority of internet traffic, posts and user accounts are the work of bots and AI-generated content. And proponents claim the massive con is being driven by governments and corporations seeking to shape the direction of the internet and manipulate people for engagement.

When did the theory emerge?
Versions have been floating around on the fringes of the web in forums such as 4chan since the late 2010s. But the theory was "solidified and amplified" in 2021 by a post claiming that "most of the internet is fake", said Forbes. The claims went mainstream later that year when an essay published in The Atlantic argued that "unlike lots of other online conspiracy theories, this one has a morsel of truth to it".

Is the internet really dead?
Three years ago, the internet "felt" dead because increased understanding of algorithms "was driving people to act like robots", said The Guardian. Now, "the robots are posting like people". The theory "wasn't wrong", it was "just too soon".

Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter and the release of ChatGPT in 2022 are key examples of this shift. Large language models have led to an explosion of AI-generated material that mimics human content. ArsTechnica reported earlier this month that dead internet theory had "come to life" with a new AI-powered social media app, SocialAI, made up of "100% fake interactions".

Do bots control the internet?
Research findings have suggested that nearly half of all internet traffic in 2022 was made by bots. This is "critically important", said computer scientists Jake Renzella and Vlada Rozova on The Conversation, because social media is the "primary news source" for many, especially young people. There is already "strong evidence social media is being manipulated by these inflated bots to sway public opinion with disinformation". Dead internet theory is a "reminder" to navigate the internet with a "critical mind".

The July release of Katy Perry's comeback single "Woman's World" provoked "some of the most savage reviews I can remember in years", said Carl Wilson in Slate. But with her new album, "143", now out, the singer might have hoped for a softening of the critical verdict. If so, she will be disappointed. 

'Mercifully brief'
"I'm honestly not accustomed to a high-level pop album being this genuinely bad," said Wilson. The "kindest thing I can say" is that "it is mercifully brief". Perry's latest release "makes one question how good she was in the first place" and "how much was just being in the right place at the right time".

The Financial Times called the album "ham-fisted", while Variety's Steven J. Horowitz said reality show judge Perry "sounds disaffected and removed, as if she'd just punched in between 'American Idol' tapings".

There were kinder words, of sorts, from Amanda Petrusich in The New Yorker, who said that aside from "Woman's World", the rest of the album "is fine, I guess". Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis said it was "certainly some way short of total catastrophe".

'Adult nightmare'
We've "repeatedly seen how banking on nostalgia – without building upon it to offer something new – is a zero-sum game", said Kofi Mframa in USA Today. Perry's new album is less "Teenage Dream" and more "adult nightmare". 

It's possible that 2024's "pop landscape" has "no room for the queen of kitsch", said Jared Richards on ABC News. Grace Sharkey, a gender and cultural studies lecturer at the University of Sydney, told the network that Perry's tongue-in-cheek "girl power" aesthetic was "clearly meant to capitalise on our popular investment in feminist politics". But "people are increasingly resistant to what they perceive as the commodification of feminist politics".

Yet "it would be foolish" to write off Perry, a "grafter who has form when it comes to going back to the drawing board", said Nick Levine at the BBC. If she can "dial up her propensity for self-reflection", she "may get her comeback further down the line".

Herefordshire: Pembridge House, Welsh Newton
Grade II 18th-century former parsonage with 19 acres of land. 6 beds, 3 baths, shower, kitchen, 4 receps, library, self-contained 2-bed holiday cottage, stables, outbuildings, garden, parking. £1.85m; Fine & Country

Dumfries and Galloway: Berryburn, Kirkpatrick Fleming
A handsome house built in 1878, set in mature grounds and with plenty of period features. With views towards the Solway and Lake District mountains. 4 suites, 2 further beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, games room, garden, barn, parking. OIEO £590,000; Fine & Country

Powys: Gungrog Fawr, Rhallt
Timber-framed farmhouse set in more than 10 acres with long views over the surrounding countryside. 4 beds, family bath, shower, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 receps, outbuildings, garden, parking. £795,000; Savills

Powys: Castell y Gwynt, Llandyssil
An elegant country house, set in a valley with glimpses of Snowdonia and Cadair Idris on a clear day. The property includes a formal garden, wildlife pool, pool house and paddock. Main suite, 3 further beds, family bath, kitchen/breakfast room, 2 receps, garden, outbuildings, garage. £1.2m; Savills

How worried should we be about Putin's nuclear threat?
Fabian Hoffmann in The Spectator
Vladimir Putin has told senior officials that Russia could "use nuclear weapons if it is attacked using conventional weapons", prompting fear that he "could resort to a nuclear strike on Europe", writes Fabian Hoffmann. But this shift in Moscow's official nuclear doctrine changes little, because "the decision always comes down to a world leader who will decide whether or not to press the proverbial red button". The West "should respond calmly to Russian nuclear threats".

Only one woman can rescue Starmer now
Patrick Maguire in The Times
"Well, at least things didn't get any worse," writes Patrick Maguire of the "tense, jubilant and flat" Labour conference. If the party wants to "reclaim the initiative it has squandered" then "everything now hinges on the budget" and "the political judgment of the chancellor". Keir Starmer's "political future is once again in the hands of Rachel Reeves" and "only she can now ensure he ends up in a better place than he started".

You can never really break up with your family
Pravina Rudra on the i news site
"Support groups and books and whole movements" have been "built around the concept of cutting yourself off from difficult family", writes Pravina Rudra. "Ostensibly, estrangement is logical" if "your family causes you pain". But "all this collides with the unfortunate reality that we have a biological and psychological entanglement with our families". Removing them from your life "isn't taboo because of other people's judgements" but "because it's such a traumatising act".