Elon Musk has once again set the crypto world abuzz on his X platform, igniting lively discussion with a single thought-provoking question.
Among those who responded was well-known crypto analyst Willy Woo, who fired the question right back at Musk.
Musk Questions Online Reality
The Tesla and D.O.G.E. CEO triggered the conversation by asking: “How many real people are still on the Internet?”
Musk’s post quoted Mario Nawfal, a popular host on X with a following of 2.2 million users. Nawfal cited The Straits Times, a major Singaporean news outlet, which reportedly stated that humans “officially lost the internet to AI-powered bots in 2024.” According to Nawfal’s post, artificial intelligence now dominates much of the web.
> “How many real people are still on the Internet?”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk), May 27, 2025
Are AI Bots Taking Over?
The tweet claimed that more than half of all internet traffic now comes from bots, many of which engage in malicious or disruptive activities—such as scraping travel sites, hoarding event tickets, and spreading drama across social platforms. The post also suggested that these bots are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Notably, Nawfal’s tweet mentioned “The Straight Times” instead of The Straits Times, a possible typo or autocorrect mishap—perhaps from an AI-driven spellchecker.
Willy Woo humorously replied, “I’m a pixelated cartoon character,” and then questioned Musk’s own authenticity: “How do I know you’re not a machine?”
> “I’m a pixelated cartoon character. How do I know you’re not a machine?”
— Willy Woo (@woonomic), May 27, 2025
Other users chimed in, many playfully asserting their humanity in the comment thread.
Musk and the Simulation Theory
Musk is known for entertaining the idea—part satire, part speculation—that we might be living in a simulated reality. He once told Lex Fridman that at Tesla and SpaceX, simulations are used regularly to test outcomes, since real-world results are often unpredictable. By that logic, Musk has suggested that if we are in a simulation, its creators may be using it in the same way—to observe consc
ious life and see what unfolds.
