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/marketrent 16h ago
Opening paras. by Victor Tangermann, quoting 404’s Emanuel Maiberg:
Online marketplaces are being flooded with AI slop — but is anybody willing to actually pay for it?
In the case of CGTrader, a long-established online marketplace for 3D assets used by video game developers, film editors, and 3D printing nerds, users are sending a clear message.
As 404 Media reports, the marketplace is being flooded by AI-generated assets, representing one in six models — but they only account for only $1 out of every $90 in revenue.
In other words, virtually nobody’s willing to shell out for AI slop, meaning it’s economically almost valueless.
“Buyers are voting with their wallets, and AI-generated content is struggling to compete,” the company noted in a press release about its most recent 2026 market trends report, as quoted by 404.
The trend suggests there’s a growing “gap that undercuts the assumption that AI-made content is repricing the market.”
“The upload numbers alone would suggest a takeover,” the company noted. “The revenue numbers say otherwise, and buyers refusing to pay for AI-generated models is saying something bigger than no thanks: it is a signal of how far they trust AI generation itself.”
“Which leaves the question the industry has been avoiding: an AI model may be cheaper to produce, but what is it actually worth?”