Machine-made media
Sep 10, 2025
Computer-generated text, images, and videos are spreading through the internet. It has become common to call it «AI slop», indicative of it's quality. Social media is particularly affected, but the consequences can be seen in blogs, search results, and the internet in general. Bots are invading our digital spaces, but we cannot blame the machines.
Someone built the machines, and someone started using the machines, no matter how automated their processes are. There are people who don’t, or won't, see the consequences of using them, these tools that can generate entertainment, content, brain rot. Where is the value?
The value, the very limited value, is a boost in likes, views, follows, attention, possibly giving someone a short-term financial gain. But the real beneficiaries are the tech moguls, the ones owning large digital platforms, services that initially connected people, but ended up enslaving them.
Why don’t people care? Why are they running someone else’s errands, blinded by the temptation of going viral, gaining fame, earning money, or confused by some misguided view of the value of mass-produced digital diversions?
Generative AI, as it is today, is simply exploitation. Exploitation of people’s art when it’s created, and exploitation of people’s attention when using it. Both misdeeds are carried out using the technology that was supposed to connect us all. It’s a sad story for the once so promising internet.
As a small silver lining is that it's still simple to turn it off. Not easy, but simple. The real, untainted world is still out there, just behind the screen. Look up, and you'll find it (mostly) where you left it.