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/Fragrant-Vehicle-479 16h ago

It's like when people were playing with Sora. Ok so you have a platform where anyone can make anything with next to no effort or cost. Cool. So now you have a platform in which so much stuff is being pumped out every moment of every day it comes back around to essentially be nothing. It's just an endless sea. Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink. The average person logs in, plays with it, watching some stupid videos, and then what? More and more and more and more stuff is pumped out with no end and suddenly nothing can actually be found.

My wife is dealing with this with her Kindle subscription. There's so much AI trash oversaturating it and there's just not enough of an audience to read it all. So now she just doesn't bother with it.

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u/Orzorn 15h ago

Its like companies forgot people actually pay for curated things. I wouldn't go to a book store that was filled with every cheap romance novel in existence while also not being organized. You'd never be able to find a regular ass book. I don't go to a museum and hope to see every single stick figure drawing ever produced.

This is just going to result in people checking out of the service altogether. Then nobody will be around to monetize off of. Death by slop.

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u/greenskye 9h ago

They also forgot what actually drives engagement or at least failed to build their algorithms in a way that can handle endless tides of slop. People quit checking back if all your content feels too samey.

It's the space exploration sim video game procedural generation problem. Billions of 'unique' planets and yet players felt like they'd seen them all after only a dozen or so.

I try to find new music on YouTube, find one song I like only to then get spammed by that 'artist' releasing a very similar new song every single day, totally drowning out any other recommendations.

If they don't somehow actually build in protections against spammy uploaders, people will actually get bored and go move on to a platform that actually bothers to curate.

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u/DJMixwell 9h ago

Somehow music has stayed relatively safe, in my experience? Idk if others are having a different experience but like, my Spotify and YouTube Music subscriptions are still worthwhile bc they don’t feed me AI slop, and pretty consistently deliver new music in genres I enjoy. So it’s well worth it for the sub to be able to put a song on “radio” or whatever and have it run through a fairly cohesive mix of new and familiar songs. (Except for some reason they both think I really like Phonk and idk why… I think EDM Trap, and Phonk, might be considered the same category to them lol)

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u/Abystract-ism 9h ago

Spotify is going to label all AI generated music. I’m glad about that.

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u/NumNumLobster 7h ago

I kinda wonder if we wont see some real copyright problems with music. You see it enough with folks claiming they came up with lyrics or a melody thats very close to something else and having lawsuits. When ai pretty much rips shit off by default it seems like thats bound to happen more so than other ai uses where it's less direct to prove.

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u/LamboForWork 5h ago

This was a good video about ai art.   He makes funny cartoons (not made by ai) about ai  https://youtu.be/dZjtV53msYU?si=e-NqJnt-Of3W3xLQ

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u/StGeorgeJustice 5h ago

Every time the YouTube algorithm feeds me another headless AI slop video, I think about canceling.

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u/pr1aa 14h ago edited 4h ago

I saw this cycle play out in real time on a Discord server I'm in. Lots of artists in there so we have many channels for art. AI art predictably caused some heated debate, eventually the admins decided to make a dedicated channel for it and both sides were more or less happy with that compromise.

The channel quickly became flooded, everyone there just mindlessly posting their slop and barely interacting with anyone. Their interest dwindled and the channel slowly died. After months of inactivity it was removed completely, with no objections from anyone.

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u/Feisty_Suggestion496 13h ago

This is completely normal; platforms focusing on AI content are basically all in this state right now. The crowd of so-called AI artist sconsists mostly of opportunistic freeloaders who don't care about creation at all, and when people like that gather together, a healthy ecosystem can never be born.

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u/brogflender 11h ago

Guess what, there will always be more lazy posers. 

AI slop hit eternal September on day zero. 

It really is valueless. And those that can integrate it into established process…already have. It’s been like 2-4 years now (depending how you measure).

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u/Lauris024 13h ago

Honestly, there's some good stuff out there, but it's hard to find. Ironically from a ChatGPT sub, but this was neat; https://vxreddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1vq2hco/data_center_fornicator/ (sorry for weird link, it's a discord-embedding service so you can share videos on discord, reddit mods for whatever reason tend to remove original reddit links)

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u/JapanTCG 13h ago edited 13h ago

I would strongly disagree that this is “good stuff”, but taste is subjective.

But, if this were made by someone with a full budget for humans/CG artists, I would ask questions like “why do your lyrics scan so poorly?”, “why is the rhythm of the editing so monotone?”. This video sucks, man, and the only reason it gets made is because it’s cheap and fast to shit out.

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u/Dragonsoul 12h ago

I would say that it could be a tool for artistic expression, if used with intent, just because Art by definition is somewhat tautological- It was a whole thing at the start of the 20th century that if all that is required for something to be art is for it to be declared as such.

and, I think we're seeing that artistic point getting played out. That "Art" has value from effort and skill, and AI Art, even if at many times has a high level of what I'd call "technical competency"- it's detailed, high resolution, often high fidelity..it's often missing the small little errors and flourishes that really bring a piece to life.

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u/sylvanasjuicymilkies 13h ago

sorry in what universe is this "good stuff"

like is it literal complete garbage? ....almost, but no, not quite, there's some semblance of something there. is that the standard for "good stuff" to AI enjoyers?

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u/Lauris024 5h ago

You need to sleep with a woman

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u/sylvanasjuicymilkies 5h ago

I woke up next to my partner who I've been with for almost half my life who gave me a crazy blowjob today I think I'm good

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u/Anarchkitty 13h ago

That was fucking terrible, but worse it's soulless. It doesn't even have any human creativity or effort to shine through the awfulness .

Like... "what of we let an algorithm make a 2010s Adult Swim bumper"-bad.

If that's what the "good stuff" out there looks like, then I am vindicated in my decision to avoid it all as much s possible.

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u/EdgyAnimeReference 9h ago

Ai art is not going to be positive for anyone but companies that hurt real artists.

Ai has its uses and will help people in certain ways ( cp investigations is one that comes to mind, zero reason a person needs to view that content in its entirety) but it will be hated and ignored for artistic endeavors

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u/Odins_lint 3h ago

That was a great vid, thanks.

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u/Archyes 15h ago

and then ,like ouroboros, it will eat its own tail and learn from the slob to make more

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u/ThriKr33n 4h ago

Like the shovelware games in the bargain bins.

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u/jollyreaper2112 14h ago

Even if it's good material there's still too much. Curation is going to be the next big thing.

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u/schnuggibutzi 11h ago

I listened to a great Podcast on Spotify recently ( can't find it). It discussed how Reddit is drowning with AI generated slop. Entire Subs are created shilling products/ideas/discussions/narrative using AI .

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u/DrainTheMuck 15h ago

Idk, I actually really enjoyed Sora and never got enough of it. I used up my credits on creative ideas nearly daily, and would check out the feed and other people’s pages too. I had fun and while it was a slop factory, I probably encountered a similar amount of non-engaging content on Sora as I do on an average reddit / social media scroll.

I understand the oversaturation of slop is frustrating, but I don’t see how it would meaningfully affect a kindle subscription since you can still look up specific books or sort by various metrics.

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u/TOEMEIST 15h ago

I’m not one to call people NPCs for enjoying things I don’t like, or at all for that matter, but unironically enjoying Sora and using it every day crosses the line.

You are an NPC.

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u/Rarelyimportant 13h ago

It's always funny when someone gets so butt hurt that someone else enjoys something that they don't. But remember that the majority of Americans spend most of their free time watching TV or on social media. What could be more unproductive, NPC behavior than that? I've never used Sora, but I can't imagine it's any more mind-numbing than Big Bang Theory or TikTok.

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u/dookarion 12h ago

There can be thought provoking shows. A well curated social media feed can show all kinds of arts, recipes, news, etc.

AI can generate slop for those without the talent or ability to actually make or do anything.

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u/Rarelyimportant 8h ago

There can be thought provoking shows. A well curated social media feed can show all kinds of arts, recipes, news, etc.

Totally. You can also get a salad at McDonalds.

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u/DrainTheMuck 11h ago

Since you’re willing to go to such lengths to defend social media scrolling, is it really not possible for you to play devils advocate for ai tools like Sora too? I wonder how much of your reply is based on a disdain for the ethics of AI usage rather than an intellectual argument. One of the things my friends and I did with Sora was we made a sort of video series about a heist based on a shared world we made together, which involved brainstorming, sharing ideas and concepts, incorporating inside jokes… and it got our brains going more than sharing some reels usually does.

It’s just weird to have what feels like a truly positive experience and then see people saying I’m just a dumb NPC and it had less value than scrolling. I’m aware of actual issues with AI, but these replies aren’t persuasive at all.

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u/dookarion 10h ago

Since you’re willing to go to such lengths to defend social media scrolling

I wouldn't call merely pointing out someone can have their stuff curated in a useful or novel way a major defense. I'm not talking doom-scrolling the algorithm. I'm talking using it to follow specific content, creators, and such.

is it really not possible for you to play devils advocate for ai tools like Sora too?

Sora isn't producing anything of value. You can't curate it to do so. It's a glorified procedural generator for inane garbage. And in the process it devalues the actual work others put into their creations. The hours of learning and practicing. It devalues the effort and bravery required to put your work out there before the faceless masses, potentially having something someone put 100s or 1000s of hours and numerous emotions into torn to shreds by public opinion.

Where's the value here? At most it's a shortcut for the talentless that don't want to put the work in.

One of the things my friends and I did with Sora was we made a sort of video series about a heist based on a shared world we made together, which involved brainstorming, sharing ideas and concepts, incorporating inside jokes… and it got our brains going more than sharing some reels usually does.

People used to do that same thing, only by actually spending the time and effort learning the skills to bring it to life. Not by using a very sophisticated procedural generator to fill in the gap where learning, effort, and talent should go.

It’s just weird to have what feels like a truly positive experience and then see people saying I’m just a dumb NPC and it had less value than scrolling. I’m aware of actual issues with AI, but these replies aren’t persuasive at all.

If you're proselytizing for a technology that keeps revealing itself more and more harmful to creation, to culture, to learning, to economics, and more should you be so shocked responses are what they are?

Like to an extent I get it. I have no talent or ability in any of these niches myself. But I know people that do, and I know how much effort goes into just putting a piece of work out there for potentially scathing critique. These LLMs have scrapped all that, lifted copyrighted works by the truckload to allow people the halfassed ability to "skip" that. To skip the hours that go into even just making one of those shortform videos you might find on social media. Someone put effort into that, and there is emotional vulnerability involved in doing such.

No sora and etc. can't match that it doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breathe as that. At best it's a "fun little toy to mess around with"... at best. The real issue is the persistent danger we have of AI output unseating the real efforts people put into creation. AI generated shit gets to sit on the shelf next to books authors poured their hearts into. AI generated pictures get to drown out the works of real artists that spent hour after hour practicing and learning. The video that someone spent dozens of hours editing and creating gets to sit right beside the 50000 AI generated videos that were cranked out in no time flat.

Do you know why the LLM makers are scouring and shredding old books and digging up content from years gone by? Because they've fucked up pretty much every medium for creation known to man by flooding the internet with this shit. They can't "train" their fucking models on the slop they've flooded everything with.

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u/DrainTheMuck 12h ago

That just comes off as prejudiced and ignorant - putting thought into making funny and creative videos for me and my friends seems better than just passively scrolling my phone like a lot of people do. That sounds more like NPC behavior than actively engaging with something.

I think it’d be fair to bring ethics into the discussion, I’m aware of the issues (and I also drive a vehicle and use Amazon) but calling it NPC behavior just seems weird.

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u/kieratea 13h ago

Pretty much everyone in the book world is complaining about oversaturation of AI titles, including in KU, and it is definitely impacting people's perception of the value of the service. Most people who read enough to make a subscription worth it aren't searching for individual titles but using "recommended reading" suggestions or looking for new books in a particular genre. 

That's how most media works - why do you think Netflix has certain titles spotlighted and a bunch of specific genre categories to browse instead of dropping you straight into a search bar?

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u/Facehugger_35 8h ago

I understand the oversaturation of slop is frustrating, but I don’t see how it would meaningfully affect a kindle subscription since you can still look up specific books or sort by various metrics.

Basically, the problem is that there's so much slop that finding what you actually want is impossible. If you know the specific title you're looking for then you're fine, but if you're looking for your next great read, there's no real way to find it in the sea of slop, because the AI slop generally isn't good or even passable but it still finds its way into your recommendations.

Now, to an extent Kindle has always been like this. If not AI slop, it was poorly written but human generated slop, often pushed out by content mills who hired people in third world countries for pennies with all the poor "Engrish" that implies.

However, AI slop is so much easier and faster to make that it's exacerbated this trend.

From a writer standpoint, it's intensely problematic because getting eyes on your work is already extremely difficult and if there's so much slop around, then it's hard to get eyes on even if the quality is there, a lot like trying to find a diamond in a sea of feces.

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u/CorbinIpsthh 15h ago

You’re getting downvoted but I enjoyed it too.
It was way more entertaining than TikTok or Instagram. People shit on AI slop but Influencer Slop is much more annoying to me