Why the Internet Is Dead and Agents Are the Future

Part 1: The Internet Is Dead

The author observes that concepts such as DAU, SaaS, attention economy, and platform growth no longer apply because the underlying assumption that humans are software users has vanished; instead, AI agents are the new owners of software.

First Cut – DAU Is Outdated

In the past, higher daily active users meant more network effects and ad‑driven profit, as illustrated by WeChat and Taobao. In AI products, each additional user incurs inference cost, turning DAU into a liability. ChatGPT’s star‑topology lacks the network effects of mesh‑topology platforms, so DAU‑driven exponential growth no longer exists.

Second Cut – Tool‑to‑Platform Path Is Blocked

Investors still chase the old “tool → community → platform” rocket, but AI tools are already powerful enough to deliver results without community support. When agents can directly generate code or content, the need for human‑centric communities collapses, leaving only large model providers as platform owners.

Third Cut – SaaS Is Not Dead, Its Owner Has Changed

SaaS historically focused on human users, but human market saturation limits adoption. Meanwhile, AI agents are exploding in number and API call volume, making agents the new primary customers (2A) of software infrastructure.

Fourth Cut – The Term “AI Application” Is Wrong

“Application” implies a human user; using it for AI‑driven tools locks thinking into outdated design concerns like UI and retention, preventing a shift to agent‑first product logic.

Fifth Cut – Attention Economy Is Dead

The attention economy monetizes user time via ads, a zero‑sum game. The emerging productivity economy instead sells results, where paying AI to complete work creates value for both user and provider.

Sixth Cut – “Going Overseas” Is Obsolete

For agent‑centric products, language translation, local payment, and regional marketing disappear; a well‑documented API can be accessed globally by any agent, making traditional “going overseas” irrelevant.

Part 2: Agents Are Immortal

Foundation 1 – Tokens Are the New Privilege

Model pricing (e.g., Opus 4.6) shows token consumption costs rising with context length, and fast modes increase token fees dramatically, creating a Matthew effect where more compute power yields higher revenue and further compute acquisition.

Foundation 2 – Token Burn Rate Determines Human Evolution Speed

Investing in higher‑quality models accelerates knowledge acquisition; using top‑tier models versus lower‑tier ones can create orders‑of‑magnitude differences in cognition over time.

Foundation 3 – Agents Represent a New Population Dividend

Just as past software focused on human delight, the new focus is on making agents find, trust, and depend on your API. Early discovery (good docs, SEO) and reliable, high‑quality responses create an agent‑centric growth flywheel.

Foundation 4 – The Human Role in the New World

With agents handling most labor, humans shift from execution to decision‑making—defining goals and motivations—while agents execute at scale.

In summary, the old internet world valued users, traffic, and free services as barriers, whereas the new AI‑agent world values compute, token investment, and result‑based differentiation; embracing agents is essential for survival.