Théodore remembers the AI slop that tipped him over the edge.
The image was of two emaciated, impoverished South Asian children. For some reason, despite their boyish features they have thick beards. One of them had no hands and only one foot. The other was holding a sign saying it’s his birthday and asking for likes.
Inexplicably they are sitting in the middle of a busy road in the pouring rain with a birthday cake. The image is full of tell-tale signs that it was made with AI. But on Facebook it went viral with nearly one million likes and heart emojis.
Something snapped in Théodore.
“It boggled my mind. The absurd AI made images were all over Facebook and getting [a] huge amount of traction without any scrutiny at all – it was insane to me,” says the 20-year-old student from Paris.
So Théodore started an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, called “Insane AI Slop” and started calling out and poking fun at the content he came across that was fooling people. Others took notice and his inbox soon became flooded with people sending submissions for popular so-called AI slop.
Théodore (left) started an online campaign to poke fun at AI ‘slop’ on social media, including a fake image (right) that received nearly one million likes
Common themes started becoming apparent – religion, military or poor children doing heartwarming things.
“Kids in the third world doing impressive stuff is always popular – like a poor kid in Africa making an insane statue out of trash. I think people find it wholesome so the creators think, ‘Great, let’s make more of this stuff up,'” Théodore says.
Théodore’s account soon swelled to over 133,000 followers.
The onslaught of AI slop – which he defines as fake, unconvincing videos and pictures, made quickly – is now unstoppable. Tech companies have embraced AI. Some of the firms say they are starting to crack down on some forms of AI ‘slop’ – though many social media feeds still appear to be full of the content.
Over just a couple of years, the experience of using social media has changed profoundly. How did it happen, and what effect will it have on society?
And, perhaps most pressingly of all, how much do the billions of social media users actually care?
