I had to skim a few paragraphs that made me feel sick to my stomach. AI is just so dumb. I really wish more people saw and learned from Westworld and were able to just see all this for what it is - a form of control, utterly devoid of soul and meant to keep us stupid.
Are the weird “news” sites that pop on google also considered slop? I was a teacher and taught media literacy ro my students and I can’t believe how much just searching has changed in the few years since I left the profession.
This whole thing reminds me of Elsagate. But in 2017 everyone agreed that it was a bad thing for kids. It's like now that it has been normalized, and companies see the money they can make off it, there's not much regulatory pushback.
i wouldn't say "it gives me hope" but nowadays I feel like a weird grim relief when people like you at least use their platforms and don't beat around the bush with these topics and call for actual community. Also, I recently watched a youtube video by Persistent Bloom on how to move away from meta and they recommended, if you can't delete your account you could at least try not to be a "daily active user". Apparently that is a metric by which is used by shareholders to "determine the value of an app or social media company". so if you don't belong to that number anymore, that is already a good step into the right direction.
hoping folk can connect and remove themselves from all of the scumrot. maybe hopefully all this blatant toxicity will further alienate ppl from our fully cooked consumption culture (wishful thinking).
i dont think the way they push ai content is sustainable at all, at least in terms of entertainment. my dad told me he saw three dancing cat videos in two minutes and asked me if there was any way to get rid of them. mind you, he doesn't care about the fact that it's ai, he was just sick of it. not even boomers find this fun, they are just easier to satisfy. they'll get bored soon.
I noticed that Paul Krugman’s post today is on the economics of AI. Slop is suddenly everywhere— I can barely research with Google anymore. Your point about creating a a creatorless (and thus unpaid) polarizing social media ecosystem is so. Everything is morphing fast— in Ezra Klein’s podcast this week he discusses the impact of TikTok on Gen Z voters, and particularly the gender divide that creates completely different realties. Currently my instagram is trained to show me biomechanics, etymology, and and science. I’m gonna miss that.
Adam I’m a fan of your work, but this piece is overblown and dare I say sensationalist. I was waiting for you to mention that Meta did a U-turn on their AI influencer plans after much backlash (https://www.yahoo.com/tech/meta-shuts-down-ai-character-011501869.html). But you didn’t.
Also, as you said yourself, you went looking for AI-generated content, so you got served lots of that. You mentioned various AI slop Reels with high metrics—does that mean that AI content is now dominating the platform?
It’s not a very rigorous method of analysis, wouldn’t you agree?
I’m all for criticising Big Social, but what I’m not here for is seeing stuff online that gets people in a tizzy, without credible receipts.
You're right to say we need to approach these topics carefully, but to clarify: the Meta AI influencers plan was not "U-turned" necessarily, the existing experimental profile from 2023 were just withdrawn after the company was embarrassed by a piece in the Washington Post. Per the statement Meta provided to The Guardian, in the article linked below: "...the recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product." The essential thing about AI, which we gotta pay attention to, isn't so much the tech itself, but the way it's being deployed and built into already-existing systems.
I think we're going to see a pendulum effect here. You've got human creators being replaced by AI content, which at the beginning will be novel and interesting, where we are now, but once AI content becomes normal, even the majority, it will quickly become uninteresting. People will begin to search for the "alternative" in human voices, something that will be buried under the AI slop, these human voices will become counter-culture, rising out of the mess that the internet has become, only for the cycle to repeat again and again.
Similar to how fashion trends come and go over the years, what's out will be in, and what's in will be out.
I'm wondering if this is a US thing? I'm in Europe and my ig feed is still mostly human... Same for other people I ask. Video like the ones you describe I see maybe one in 20. I even follow some ai video accounts, but the suggested ones are still mostly human.
It could be a regional thing. It could also be age? I don't get many AI videos at all and I'm American. It seems like older folks who use social media are the ones getting AI videos. This is from my own observations
I like what you said about staying away from *algorithmic* social media. Burying your head in the sand and going cold turkey is often not realistic for people, but staying off reels, shorts, and suggested content seems more manageable, though the line is blurred on several platforms. I can’t just check up on my friends on Instagram—I have to be fed reels and suggested posts right in my feed. It’s so annoying.
I'm so thankful the "following" tab on insta still exists for this reason. Makes it so much easier to check in with what people I know are posting, and see stuff from artists I follow without falling into the algorithmic pits of despair. Someone with alot of followed accounts might find it as helpful to escape the clutter, but it definitely makes a large difference for me.
This is one of the main reasons I stopped using instagram. The reels are so full of brainrot AI and then of course the algorithm pushes so many ads, it’s no longer a platform to keep up with friends.
AI content seems so soulless to me and it's boring, which makes me go off social media. Not a bad thing actually. I am back to reading only few quality media outlets
As more of my feed becomes tainted by AI (whether it be posts fully made by AI or creators unnecessarily using AI created images in explanation videos), I try to turn towards more time offline. But I worry about news sources eventually just being AI written articles or scripts, even in physical papers or magazines. I feel like being a human and creating with a human touch will be pushed out everywhere, even in the physical world.
I had to skim a few paragraphs that made me feel sick to my stomach. AI is just so dumb. I really wish more people saw and learned from Westworld and were able to just see all this for what it is - a form of control, utterly devoid of soul and meant to keep us stupid.
Are the weird “news” sites that pop on google also considered slop? I was a teacher and taught media literacy ro my students and I can’t believe how much just searching has changed in the few years since I left the profession.
This whole thing reminds me of Elsagate. But in 2017 everyone agreed that it was a bad thing for kids. It's like now that it has been normalized, and companies see the money they can make off it, there's not much regulatory pushback.
i wouldn't say "it gives me hope" but nowadays I feel like a weird grim relief when people like you at least use their platforms and don't beat around the bush with these topics and call for actual community. Also, I recently watched a youtube video by Persistent Bloom on how to move away from meta and they recommended, if you can't delete your account you could at least try not to be a "daily active user". Apparently that is a metric by which is used by shareholders to "determine the value of an app or social media company". so if you don't belong to that number anymore, that is already a good step into the right direction.
its so over
hoping folk can connect and remove themselves from all of the scumrot. maybe hopefully all this blatant toxicity will further alienate ppl from our fully cooked consumption culture (wishful thinking).
i dont think the way they push ai content is sustainable at all, at least in terms of entertainment. my dad told me he saw three dancing cat videos in two minutes and asked me if there was any way to get rid of them. mind you, he doesn't care about the fact that it's ai, he was just sick of it. not even boomers find this fun, they are just easier to satisfy. they'll get bored soon.
I noticed that Paul Krugman’s post today is on the economics of AI. Slop is suddenly everywhere— I can barely research with Google anymore. Your point about creating a a creatorless (and thus unpaid) polarizing social media ecosystem is so. Everything is morphing fast— in Ezra Klein’s podcast this week he discusses the impact of TikTok on Gen Z voters, and particularly the gender divide that creates completely different realties. Currently my instagram is trained to show me biomechanics, etymology, and and science. I’m gonna miss that.
https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/how-should-we-think-about-the-economics
Adam I’m a fan of your work, but this piece is overblown and dare I say sensationalist. I was waiting for you to mention that Meta did a U-turn on their AI influencer plans after much backlash (https://www.yahoo.com/tech/meta-shuts-down-ai-character-011501869.html). But you didn’t.
Also, as you said yourself, you went looking for AI-generated content, so you got served lots of that. You mentioned various AI slop Reels with high metrics—does that mean that AI content is now dominating the platform?
It’s not a very rigorous method of analysis, wouldn’t you agree?
I’m all for criticising Big Social, but what I’m not here for is seeing stuff online that gets people in a tizzy, without credible receipts.
You're right to say we need to approach these topics carefully, but to clarify: the Meta AI influencers plan was not "U-turned" necessarily, the existing experimental profile from 2023 were just withdrawn after the company was embarrassed by a piece in the Washington Post. Per the statement Meta provided to The Guardian, in the article linked below: "...the recent Financial Times article was about our vision for AI characters existing on our platforms over time, not announcing any new product." The essential thing about AI, which we gotta pay attention to, isn't so much the tech itself, but the way it's being deployed and built into already-existing systems.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/03/meta-ai-powered-instagram-facebook-profiles
Fair point Aidan and thanks for chiming in. Adam, no shade to you sir, just trying to exercise my critical thinking out here, while I still can...
I think we're going to see a pendulum effect here. You've got human creators being replaced by AI content, which at the beginning will be novel and interesting, where we are now, but once AI content becomes normal, even the majority, it will quickly become uninteresting. People will begin to search for the "alternative" in human voices, something that will be buried under the AI slop, these human voices will become counter-culture, rising out of the mess that the internet has become, only for the cycle to repeat again and again.
Similar to how fashion trends come and go over the years, what's out will be in, and what's in will be out.
I'm wondering if this is a US thing? I'm in Europe and my ig feed is still mostly human... Same for other people I ask. Video like the ones you describe I see maybe one in 20. I even follow some ai video accounts, but the suggested ones are still mostly human.
It could be a regional thing. It could also be age? I don't get many AI videos at all and I'm American. It seems like older folks who use social media are the ones getting AI videos. This is from my own observations
The opiate of the masses taken to its logical conclusion.
By the way Adam if you haven’t seen what Sesame is doing with conversational AI I’d love to see your take on it. I found it downright creepy.
I like what you said about staying away from *algorithmic* social media. Burying your head in the sand and going cold turkey is often not realistic for people, but staying off reels, shorts, and suggested content seems more manageable, though the line is blurred on several platforms. I can’t just check up on my friends on Instagram—I have to be fed reels and suggested posts right in my feed. It’s so annoying.
I'm so thankful the "following" tab on insta still exists for this reason. Makes it so much easier to check in with what people I know are posting, and see stuff from artists I follow without falling into the algorithmic pits of despair. Someone with alot of followed accounts might find it as helpful to escape the clutter, but it definitely makes a large difference for me.
This is one of the main reasons I stopped using instagram. The reels are so full of brainrot AI and then of course the algorithm pushes so many ads, it’s no longer a platform to keep up with friends.
AI content seems so soulless to me and it's boring, which makes me go off social media. Not a bad thing actually. I am back to reading only few quality media outlets
we should really spend less time in social media
As more of my feed becomes tainted by AI (whether it be posts fully made by AI or creators unnecessarily using AI created images in explanation videos), I try to turn towards more time offline. But I worry about news sources eventually just being AI written articles or scripts, even in physical papers or magazines. I feel like being a human and creating with a human touch will be pushed out everywhere, even in the physical world.
I like ur essays and this one too but it’s kinda funny that ur advice at the end boils down to “touch grass”