Given its outlandish nature and tenuous relationship with reality, you might think this so-called "AI slop" would quickly disappear. However, it shows no sign of abating. In fact, our research suggests this kind of low-quality AI-generated content is becoming a lucrative venture for the people who make it, the platforms that host it, and even a growing industry of middlemen teaching others how to get in on the AI gold rush. The short explanation for the prevalence of these baffling videos and images is that savvy creators on social media platforms have worked out how to use generative AI tools to earn a quick buck. But the full story is more complex. Platforms have created incentive programs for content that goes viral, and a whole ecosystem of content creators has arisen using generative AI to exploit these programs. Much of the conversation around generative AI tools focuses on how they enable ordinary people to "create." Many earlier digital technologies have also made it easier to participate in creative activities, such as how smartphones made photography ubiquitous. But generative AI takes this a step further, as it can generate tailored images or videos from a simple text prompt. It makes content creation more accessible - and also opens the floodgates to mass production on social media. To take just one example: if you search "pet dance motorcycle" on TikTok, you will find hundreds of AI-generated videos of animals doing the "motorbike dance," all animated using the same AI template. Some accounts post dozens of videos like this every day. You may wonder why such repetitive, unimaginative content can go viral on TikTok. The answer lies in the platform's own advice to aspiring creators: if you want your videos to be promoted, you should "continuously share fresh and diverse content" that "doesn't require a big production budget." TikTok's community guidelines do ban "inaccurate, misleading, or false... |