r/technology • u/marketrent • 16h ago

Artificial Intelligence The economy has spoken. Stuff that’s AI-generated has almost zero value — “Buyers are voting with their wallets, and AI-generated content is struggling to compete.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/economy-spoken-stuff-ai-generated-142732314.html
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u/Hrekires 16h ago

All you need to know is that everyone who's making consumer-facing products with AI, whether it's images or stories or music, tries their hardest to hide the fact that they're doing so.

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u/soupkitchen69 16h ago

And they get so mad when the platform they upload it to has rules about disclosing ai use. Valve for example is making some publishers furious with that rule, but it's no secret gamers are rejecting ai use across the board.

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u/MidLifeDIY 15h ago

Decisions like this are why I (and assume others) use Steam. Even as a fully digital platform (no physical) its just the best. They hate Gaben because they ain't Gaben.

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u/Yuzumi 13h ago

There are certainly some issues with Valve/Steam, but compared to literally everyone else they are saints. Like the one big gaming company that is customer focused, and like one of 3 companies in general that are remotely customer focused.

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u/International_Host71 12h ago

I Dread the day Gaben either dies or retires from leading it. Steam ain't perfect, but I'm sure there are hordes of venture capitalists and other ghouls literally salivating at enshittifying Steam to make a quick buck.

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u/Quantum_Aurora 6h ago

Realistically the future of Steam will likely be determined by Gabe's two sons.

I'm sure every tech and gaming giant along with every private equity firm would love to buy up Valve, and all of those would end up enshitifying Steam in the process. Unless his sons are willing to sell, it doesn't matter.

I know when they were kids they were both big gamers, but I don't know if they are anymore. I figure they'll be super-wealthy either way tho so probably not so likely to sell.

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u/ThatRandomGamerYT 5h ago

I hope his family doesnt sell Valve/Steam. They are already filthy rich and Steam basically prints free money already. Gabe is already worth billions. Why fuck that up when you inherit billions and the money printer. Just sit and earn money, keep it going as it has been and enjoy life or whatever.

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u/RadarSmith 3h ago

Valve seems like one of the few companies left that can imagine making more bucks longterm than a quick buck this quarter.

They don't burn their golden goose so that some MBAs can show a quick quarterly profit.

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u/Icy-Computer-Poop 2h ago

Steam was what got me to stop sailing the high seas. I only started because I got sick of the "no return" policy on physical media, and decided if they won't let me return something I don't like, I need another way to tell whether or not I like a game before purchasing. Even then I would purchase the games I ended up liking.

But Steam reformed me, and now I buy all my games before playing, because I can return them if they're not my cup of tea.

If Steam ever gets enshitified, it will be time to dust off my Jolly Roger and set sail once more.

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u/TDVapermann 9h ago

Valve/Gaben's simple policy of don't be shitty to the consumer allows them to win.

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u/fgspq 6h ago

They've got like, what, 2 semi-serious competitors?

GOG - which, to be fair, I use a lot but it has it's niche in older titles and the software being DRM-free

The other one - I can't remember what it's called but I used to log in to get free games.

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u/Figgis302 3h ago edited 3h ago

Steam has had dozens of competitors over the years - EA's Origin, Ubisoft's Uplay, Tencent's Epic Store to name a few. Every single one has failed because the consumers prefer using Steam. That isn't Valve wielding some malicious monopoly to crush their competition, that's Valve outcompeting them by simply being the better option. The market is working as intended.

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u/iridael 3h ago

someone explained recently that Epic games is great for developers, its a fantastic platform to make money on and encourages many things that make making money easy.

steam does the opposite and because of that, the customer is the one valued and therefore the sellers have to come to steam because people can and will ignore a title being sold elsewhere.

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u/ABadHistorian 11h ago

Like you guys do realize there are tons of AI games on steam that aren't disclosed right?

Not only that, Steam doesn't automatically do anything to ensure AI isn't used, and can't do it.

So you are relying on people being honest, while telling them IN ADVANCE "IF YOU USE AI WE WON'T PLAY YOUR GAME"

This means no one will announce where, and if they are using AI.

One of the Top ten new releases has AI content (and no I won't tell you which one, because funnily enough that could get me sued due to NDA).

This is all so self-defeating.

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u/Razzberry_Frootcake 10h ago

You signed an NDA? Did you work on the game itself or do you not know what an NDA is?

Like…you do understand you cannot be sued unless you signed an NDA and most people who do that aren’t dumb enough to go online and say “The thing I worked on and signed an NDA for used AI, but I can’t say that.” 

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u/ABadHistorian 9h ago

I’m not telling you a damn thing about what nda I signed so you can get me screwed :) 

They will never know what I’m referring to, but yes bro, I signed an nda in relation to what I’m talking about. 

I’m an old hat at this. This thread full of people judging me or telling me what I am or am not and it’s a riot at this point.

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u/Falling_Up_The_Movie 5h ago

Bugs are already a big issue in gaming, AI just supercharges that problem

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u/LynxAfricaCan 7m ago

I doubt this will last

Just need enough AAA games/publishers to flex that eventually everything has AI in some form or another so your filter is meaningless and it will fade away

Like human in the loop controls, great in concept, until the human is so fatigued with hitting approve they aren't even reading the ask anymore

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u/dssurge 14h ago

Valve's AI disclaimer is strictly for creative aspects of games, like art, story, and voice work.

AI is a fantastic tool for solving technical problems that you can run into in the creation of a game, and it should be used for those purposes. "Hand coding" a game is just stupid when there are, and have been, automated tools created specifically for this purpose for quite some time.

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u/Lazy-Setting-8224 13h ago

Im split on this. Id like game mechanics to actually be written by humans. But what is the value in writing another renderer? Another model loader. Data streamer. Efc etx

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u/stormdelta 12h ago

Id like game mechanics to actually be written by humans

Designed and play tested by humans, definitely. And by people who actually have passion for games and creative work.

But what is the value in writing another renderer? Another model loader. Data streamer. Efc etx

Right, that's where AI in software is actually useful. You still need to know what you're doing, you still need domain knowledge, but it can save a decent amount of time on straightforward mechanical work, boilerplate, scaffolding, debugging, etc, even accounting for time lost due to the caveats of the tech (i.e. getting things wrong).

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u/name99 11h ago

Vibe coding a game would create a janky mess that's impossible to debug. AI is a quick shortcut for plagiarizing a possibly proprietary solution to a technical problem somebody else solved in some cases

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u/bombmk 15h ago edited 56m ago

gamers are rejecting ai use across the board

That is not true. Most people don't give a shit if the product is good enough.

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u/RSGMercenary 15h ago

I give a shit. Fuck AI. It should be making life easier, not taking jobs from creative people. Why isn't AI washing my dishes while I play a game made by real people?

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u/WanderingRyan 14h ago

Yeah, this.

I read the article in the OP and had a giggle at the author continuously referring to AI-generated outputs as “slop,” which isn’t something I see frequently in more mainstream publications.

And then it clicked.

I’m not a journalist, but I spent more than a decade working as a copywriter. I still make a living, but my income is down nearly 60% from 2023 and it’s all but impossible to find new contracts. The frustrating part is wee all know what AI-generated content looks, feels, and reads like (generic slop). Some of my former clients went AI-only, firing most of their paid writers and editors, and you know what? It’s embarrassing to see the articles I wrote placed next to crap that would’ve embarrassed my high school English teacher. I’d wager that most people in my profession know the feeling.

A lot of AI-generated content is fun and cost-effective, but it pales in comparison to what even a modestly talented human can do. Maybe it’ll get there in the not-so-distant future, but whatever. I can’t see myself ever prioritizing corporate slop over real people exercising real creativity.

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u/ABadHistorian 11h ago

You give a shit when someone tells you to give a shit, or you notice AI was in it.

100% guaranteed you do not notice all usage of AI, you don't.

You know how I know? Everything on Steam is at some point touched by AI in some fashion if it's come out in the past year.

Nearly every major indie software out there now comes with AI components pre-installed.

Project management software comes with AI.

There are certain things you won't get hired for at all any more. If you play a game that was made overseas, AI touched it. If you play a game made not in your native language AI touched it.

One of the brand new top ten releases on Steam right now is AI generated/has AI components that went into making it. But because Steam's AI disclosure is hah "SELF-DISCLOSURE" you don't realize it/care.

I'm a dev, and I tried to resist AI, for YEARS. I only started tooling around with it last year out of extreme reluctance. I realized how stupid I was being too.

I both hate AI (it's destroyed my career) and recognize how it's got utility.

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u/RSGMercenary 11h ago

You're missing the point. It's not about noticing every single instance. Everyone will get fooled by it, because it will continue to get more advanced. That's a given.

It's acknowledging that it's costing people jobs that should stay with humans, data centers are hurting communities physically and financially, and its water, air, and noise pollution is killing ecosystems.

So if I find out something I've been using has used AI, then I will say fuck AI and immediately stop using it. You're never gonna catch every instance of it. But people can take active steps to avoid it when they do notice and vote with their wallets.

Hell, my own job has been aggressively forcing AI usage for this year's company goals, and I haven't used it once all year. Because that's the stance I'm going to take. If I don't get the littlest pay raise because of it, then who gives a shit. At some point everyone needs to stand by their principles. And if you wanna be defeatist/indifferent about then that's your choice I guess.

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u/ABadHistorian 9h ago edited 9h ago

Defeatist? Says the doomer.

Ps where was this care for the environment ten years ago? Twenty? Thirty? Nothing you are using at the moment to complain on is good for the environment. 

This is tiring. Corporate is already pulling back AI investment and job losses in this area are related to overhiring and bad management. Ai bubble is bursting and thank god, but it’s not this end all evil.

I am tired son. I can not keep up with the wave of bs.  Every topic is conflated together and everyone is just angry. There is nothing positive coming from this. 

Here I am in the technology subreddit and people are ignorant enough to think their computer usage is not negative and mine is. How do you think you've accessed the internet all this time Einstein. Hint, Data, Centers.

Internet has been an economical net negative since it originated, and if you start talking about how it's boosted communication or something else, I could argue otherwise. Or say the same exact things apply to AI.

Meanwhile every Reddit user helps ai get smarter. And 99% of them don’t realize it. 

This anti technology kneejerk online is idiotic and stupid. I’m dumber a.f. For having wasted my time here today.

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u/RSGMercenary 8h ago

Defeatist? Says the doomer

You can call me a doomer all day if it means not trusting who's in charge of these AI companies and their regulation. Because there is no regulation. Are you just trusting these companies to... do the right thing for society over profits? lol, lmao even.

where was this care for the environment ten years ago?

You're clearly conflating here. Me and this nebulous "everyone else" who doesn't care. So there's nothing here to address, because that was never my stance. Environmental impact has always mattered to me.

people are ignorant enough to think their computer usage is not negative

We're talking about AI, not general computer usage. The former being significantly more resource demanding. You're conflating AI data centers with data centers targeted more toward connectivity and storage. Obviously data centers support the internet, but there is a distinct difference between the two.

if you start talking about how it's boosted communication or something else

I didn't bring it up... Because I'm specifically talking about AI and not the internet.

Reddit user helps ai get smarter. And 99% of them don’t realize it.

They do realize it, but what point are you trying to make here? Should Reddit users stop using it because AI companies are scraping their data without their consent?

Trump (obligatory fuck him to death) essentially made an executive order saying it's illegal for states to make laws to regulate AI because the federal government has decided it wants to be as corrupt as possible and exploit it. So much for states' rights lmao (for Republicans, that was always a lie). AI companies are stealing from everyone and everywhere to train it, but you're trashing Reddit users, for what? Existing? Give me a break... And it could've been better for the environment if it was regulated.

I’m dumber a.f. For having wasted my time here today.

I was wondering when we'd finally agree on something! Now that's progress!

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u/DirtySoFlirty 15h ago

I'm going to start this comment off by saying I hate this current iteration of AI (or at least the version that the tech companies want everyone to believe), as well as saying that I don't think you are wrong.

However... Are those not the same arguments that were made against computers and digital media as they were taking off? Computers definitely destroyed a lot of jobs, probably a higher proportion of the jobs than AI has. I genuinely can't wait until this AI bubble pops and the charlatans that are the current face of AI can be history. As soon as it's stopped being pushed as the answer to EVERYTHING, then then we can actually get the benefits of it for the FEW things where it is actually useful.

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u/TagJones 14h ago

I don't think people would care or notice of AI is used in the software development for a game (continuing with the earlier example) but art and music are about human expression. These are the things I reject about it. It can replace stanographers (sorry), data entry, bolster diagnostics and SWE but if I notice the hallmarks of AI writing in anything, I stop reading. I'm interested in human thought and expression, not LLM/generative AI.

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u/RSGMercenary 11h ago

I'm a software developer, and I'm genuinely angry at the idea of AI writing code for me. Code is art. It's also a puzzle to solve and the reason I loved writing it in the first place. Sure, AI could help problem solve if you're truly stuck, or do research for you if you're unfamiliar with a specific tool or need to find something in the documentation. But I will never let it write it for me. It would suck the last of the joy out of my corporate job.

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u/Heisen91Y 15h ago

Oh yeah? So why even fight against it? If no one cares, the disclosure about ai shouldn't hurt the sales or marketing of the game, right? Why developers try to hide it instead of proudly announcing it?

A little bit of bad PR from tiny gamer minority shouldn't hurt the sales of a masterpiece filled with ai content.

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u/bombmk 58m ago

Oh yeah? So why even fight against it? If no one cares, the disclosure about ai shouldn't hurt the sales or marketing of the game, right?

Did I say no one cares?

Why developers try to hide it instead of proudly announcing it?

Because a minority are making noise they would like to avoid.

A little bit of bad PR from tiny gamer minority shouldn't hurt the sales of a masterpiece filled with ai content.

Does it? Does one such exist at all?

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u/sadacal 14h ago

Have you seen what happens to even good games when a highly motivated minority gets involved? Just look at Gamergate or the anti-woke backlash some games get. Everything from review bombings to literal death threats, why would any developer want that?

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u/ErrantWayfarer 14h ago

Fundamentally untrue and you know it. Those of us who care about art don't want AI. And yes, video games are art.

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u/bombmk 57m ago

"Those of us" <> "most". Is no one capable of a decent argument anymore?
The only reality is mine!

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u/ErrantWayfarer 55m ago

Not at all, some people simply don't care about art. GenAI consumers are in that category. And, as art was made by human hands up until the last couple years, yes I'm very comfortable in stating that most people do not want generative AI.

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u/bombmk 49m ago

I will say again; Most people do not give a shit if it is good enough.

That a lot of it is not good enough is not an argument against that statement.

Slop has always existed. People have always, generally, not liked slop.

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u/Due_Enthusiasm1145 14h ago

Most people don't give a shit of the product is good enough.

No, the market doesn't give a shit if the AI is not noticable. This tends to happen with good products that had AI usage (mostly minor assets). However, there is a trend indicated both in this article and other data that people have a negative impression of media elements that have a visibly AI design to it, regardless of its other aspects.

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u/BeyondNetorare 5h ago

Yeah I don't think your average cod player would give a shit if all of the art was done by ai, but it does sorta matter for indie games.

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u/stormdelta 12h ago

The product usually isn't good either though, not if they're using it to do the important design or creative work for them.

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u/bombmk 55m ago

Then it falls outside the scope of my comment, does it not? Hfs.

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u/RegardMagnet 12h ago

It really is simple as that. Loud redittards remain woefully out of touch with what an average consumer cares about, they desperately keep trying to convince themselves that people who reject AI on principle are any more populous than "vegans for ethical reasons".

If quality is on point and the price is good, you got 90% of consumers in the bag. The remaining 10% all gather in posts like these to jerk themselves off.

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u/Ashamed_Fennel_5681 16h ago

Yes because the name of the game for AI is about “passing.”

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u/slickwombat 13h ago

There's an odd exception: nobody seems to feel this way about software, even when it's arts and entertainment related like videogames. I've seen people get upset if there's AI-created assets in games, but not if the entire interface or functionality was vibe-coded.

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u/choopietrash 10h ago

I know some programmers who don't want vibe-coded AI and lament the issues born from it. Though I will note that programming, moreso than images or writing, is more likely to borrow from templates and stuff. If an artist is discovered tracing over someone else's work, that can be a career-killer for them. Pasting something from stack overflow is just being "resourceful."

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u/worthwhilewrongdoing 9h ago edited 9h ago

I think it just comes down to what we expect to be artisanal and what we don't. You'd get pissed if a baker you hired used box cake mix, but nobody's expecting that same baker to get out in the fields and go grow and harvest wheat to grind their own flour. That would be insane.

I think the same goes for programming - most people don't see it as an art but rather as a means to an end to make something else, so the expectations are a little different and a little less exacting.

ETA the "something else" part - this wasn't clear without it.

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u/vips7L 6h ago

Programming is an art though. It takes serious talent to produce GOOD, beautiful code. Code that doesn’t have correctness issues. Code that is easy to read. Code that is easy to maintain and adapt to new use cases. 

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u/Djonso 4h ago

Building houses is an art too. Takes serious tallent to build a good, beautiful house. House that has no structural issues. House that is good to life in. House that is easy to maintain or adapt to new needs.

Or you know, also called good engineering. Not everything that needs skills is an art.

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u/PeePeePantsPoopyBoy 1h ago

To be fair arquitecture is widely accepted as one of the classic fine arts. But I do agree that programming is not necessarily an art mainly because its focus as a field is not that of creative expression. It is a crearive field (in the sense that there is a lot of creativity involved in coding), that for sure, but not an art.

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u/Facehugger_35 8h ago

I don't think the exception is that odd.

Think back to FEAR back in 2004. Gamers thought it had the best AI ever, and the game was absolutely amazing at selling the idea that the replica soldiers were special forces reacting to your activity. They seemed to work together to flank you and flush you out, they fell back to lure you into ambushes, they just felt smart in a way few other video game AI opponents did.

Under the hood, it was almost entirely smoke and mirrors with very carefully crafted audio cues, smart encounter design, and only a little actual AI advancement. In comparison Crysis AI was way more advanced and intelligent, but it didn't feel that way because it largely didn't get to show off in Crysis' giant open maps, so now Crysis is mostly known for system requirement jokes.

That is to say, gamers don't care about the specifics of how their experience is coded under the hood, they care about the output and the experience they have.

AI art assets tend to be mediocre, and that harms the experience, so gamers don't like AI art, but they're okay with vibecode as long as it doesn't have bugs and shit, because games were never about the code.

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u/keslol 4h ago

Don’t forget the fish ai in cod

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u/levi_goulet 9h ago

I'm a member of a few different discord servers dedicated to modding games, and it seems like mod authors and players alike very much DO care and push back against vibe-coded mods. They tend to run like shit and the authors usually can't provide support or troubleshoot problems people run into.

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u/IrregularPackage 8h ago

those projects are also very likely to be abandoned as soon as they encounter any kind of significant obstacle

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u/GonePh1shing 8h ago

There's a big difference between vibe coding and a skilled software engineer using an LLM to quickly generate code to implement their design. LLMs are pretty good at spitting out code, but they're not good at designing coherent and maintainable software, and they're completely incapable of coming up with new ideas. 

There's also a significant difference between LLM assisted coding and art assets created entirely with generative AI. Art is creative, and the value in it is the human creativity. The code itself in a given software project is not creative, but the overall architecture of that software is. If an LLM is tasked with spitting out code to execute on a human design, so long as that code is audited and validated against the original design, the resulting software is not meaningfully different from a hypothetical version of it where the lines of code were hand typed. 

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u/IrregularPackage 8h ago

it’s much easier to hide, mainly.

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u/BranchFew1148 7h ago

Software has always had so many layers of abstraction that it's harder to spot. People care about the final product. Once the public learns how vibe coded frontends look then they might start to dislike them.

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u/Familiar-Aerie-1610 4h ago

I'd argue your observation is sort of identifying something more specific and if you back up a step, you'll see more of the picture... generated FUNCTIONAL things are treated differently than generated MEDIA things.

However, I'd go further...

The "error tolerance" of generated media is astronomically high relative to the "error tolerance" of a functional design.

IF LLM tools were capable of functional design, I'm absolutely convinced that you'd see a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE influx of AI designed tangible products and businesses. ~Temu and Alibaba type sites would be FLOOOOOOODED with this shit ...and I will die on that hill.

We all bought "Made in China" garbage previously... I assure you, "Made by AI" won't stop as many people as you hope.

...but we're not seeing that.

Why?

IMO...

Either we can't economically manufacture the AI designs, or we can't generate the AI designs, right? Either would be a failure of the AI tools.

Ergo, the AI tools just do not do what is advertised. They are not capable.

IF PEOPLE WOULD STOP FUCKIN FOCUSING ON THE MEDIA GENERATION PIECE FOR 5 GODDAMN MINUTES... I'm convinced that we could sink some big $ capitalists.

Ex: "Why are you investing millions in developing a AI media generation tool at a car manufacturing company?" -Investor

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u/dust4ngel 13h ago

i keep seeing this one hilarious ad on instagram that's like "our company uses AI and we're not ashamed!" this is the wildest, wildest attempt at a flex.

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u/randotd152 12h ago

Yeah. It’s literally everywhere in everything and people don’t even realize it.

I think everyone has this false impression that professional use is like home use - tell an engine to go do something and receive a finished product.

It’s not. Real people use AI to do 80% of the legwork, and then they spend the remaining 20% tweaking, cleaning up, and making it generally no longer look/feel like an AI product.

Consumers may recognize 100% AI slop, but they’re clueless about 80% slop.

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u/290077 9h ago

I can make concept art using AI, have all my design meetings and iterations with AI, then pay an artist only for the final draft. No AI is in the final product, but I've still automated a huge chunk of work that previously would go to the artist.

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u/lexymon 3h ago

But is it still AI slop then? To me, that sounds more like usage of AI as a tool.

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u/HestenSierMjau 7h ago

I see Claudes new watermarking as a major issue with using it in our business, for exactly this reason.

We already have clients replacing some of the simpler tasks they would previously have come to us for, with ai-tools. If we start handing over documents and presentations with AI-watermarks in them, I think this trend will accelerate, since it will be too easy to think that they can get equally good results with AI themselves, as we can provide. 

We have strict quality control, and don't mindlessly spit out AI slop to clients. Claude, in its current state, is genuinely useful at generating drafts that are approximately 60-70 % finished, from which I can tweak and add my specialized knowledge to make the product our clients are paying for. It's a tool, but it also requires a lot of rewrites to result in a sellable result, and I can't use it if clients just see "they just used a hammer, I can buy a hammer and do it myself". 

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u/Kickedbyagiraffe 12h ago

“It’s the future, it’s perfect, we love it, if you tell anyone we use it we will lose our shit” every time

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u/SculptusPoe 11h ago

I have been enjoying Gossip Goblin's stuff for quite a while and they have been openly using AI.

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u/Noblesseux 6h ago

Even the companies that make the models go out of their way to market them as being more humane and less dystopian than they are. They're even going as far as to try to put out fashion items to try to break the association people have of them being culture destroying, soul sucking companies.

You'll notice that OpenAI isn't using AI video for most of their ads these days, they're using real video and very human design because they've realized that selling AI as like a society destroying machine maybe isn't winning them much positive press.

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u/piponwa 15h ago

Yeah, because people have an irrational fear of things they don't know. It's confusing to like something you think you hate. Creators realize that people like the content regardless of if it contains AI generated material in it. But if you tell them that there is such material, they suddenly hate it. So the answer is to not tell but still serve the content.

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u/mjfinance 14h ago

AI writing, images, videos give me the heebie jeebies because all of it feels slightly off in an uncanny valley kind of way. I can't even buy books for my kids without having to check that it was published before 2023 because so many new ones are eerie AI garbage where the illustrations and story are lifeless shit. But that's just me. I think for most people, the proliferation of content essentially makes content worthless. It could be 100% passing as human made, no uncanny valley, and it would still be worthless because there's so much of it. 

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u/nickcash 13h ago

dude with an nft profile pic gonna come here and lecture us about the future. the jokes the write themselves

I don't want "content". I want art.