HWhat do you think, humans? My name is Arwa. I am a true member of Homo sapiens. We’re talking about 100% flesh and blood humans operating here in the flesh space. I am by no means an AI-powered bot. I know, I know. That’s exactly what the bot says, isn’t it? I think you’ll just have to trust me on this matter.
By the way, the reason I have such a hard time pointing this out is because content created by real humans is becoming kind of a novelty these days. The internet is rapidly being overtaken by advances in AI. (It’s not clear who coined the phrase, but “slop” is a sophisticated iteration of Internet spam: low-quality text, video, and images generated by AI.) Recent analysis shows that More than half of long English posts on LinkedIn were generated by AI. Meanwhile, many news sites are secretly experimenting with AI-generated content, in some cases signed by AI-generated authors.
Slop is everywhere, but Facebook is actively sloshing strange AI-generated images, including a bizarre depiction of Jesus made of shrimp. Rather than try to remove AI-generated content from its platform, much of it created by fraudsters seeking to drive engagement for illicit purposes, Facebook has embraced it. A study conducted last year by researchers at Stanford University and Georgetown University found that Facebook’s recommendation algorithm increases these AI-generated posts.
Meta also creates its own slops. In 2023, the company began introducing AI-powered profiles like Liv, a “proud black queer mom of two and truth teller.” These didn’t garner much attention until Meta executive Connor Hayes told the Financial Times in December that the company had plans to fill its platform with AI characters. I don’t know why he thought bragging that we’d soon have a platform full of AI characters talking to each other would work, but it didn’t. Meta quickly deleted the AI profile after it went viral.
For now, people like Liv may be gone from Meta, but our online future looks increasingly sloppy. The Internet’s gradual “ensitization” (the deterioration of services driven by a relentless pursuit of profit), as Cory Doctorow memorably called it, is accelerating. Let’s pray that Shrimp Jesus will perform a miracle soon. we need that.
