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   Is AI like ChatGPT, Grok, and Gemini ruining social media? Because it sure   
   feels like it   
      
   Date:   
   Mon, 31 Mar 2025 18:00:10 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   AI is taking over social media, one sloppy post at a time  but the   
   consequences go way beyond cringe.   
      
   FULL STORY   
   ======================================================================   
      
   Yesterday morning, I logged into Facebook and saw an image of the Colosseum   
   turned into a water park. On LinkedIn, everyone was busy transforming their   
   headshots into Studio Ghibli characters, courtesy of ChatGPTs latest update.   
   Threads showed me a video reimagining the cast of Severance crawling around   
   Lumon as babies. And X kindly served up a Grok-generated image of Elon Musk   
   and Donald Trump in a pose I wish I could unsee.    
      
   Its not just me, right? Social media has become a swirling mess of synthetic   
   content. Weve written about the rise of AI slop before  part cringe-inducing   
   art gallery, part uncanny valley fever dream. And sure, the algorithm is   
   feeding me stuff it thinks I care about  Severance babies, travel inspo, a   
   healthy dose of Musk mockery. That checks out.    
      
   But I keep thinking: has AI officially ruined social media? And is this just   
   harmless chaos or is it quietly rewiring how we see truth, trust, and    
   reality?   
      
   The four horsemen of the AI slopocalypse    
      
   One of the biggest problems with AI content is the sheer volume  and its   
   coming from all sides. AI evangelists. Your coworkers. Your friends. Your    
   gran (who probably doesnt even realize what shes reposting). And brands that   
   absolutely should know better.    
      
   To make sense of the mess, I spoke to Joe Goulcher , a creative director and   
   social media expert. He works with brands on this stuff daily and has a   
   front-row seat to the AI slop flood. According to Joe, AI content tends to   
   fall into four distinct strains  like a virus, he tells me.    
      
   Functional AI slop   
      
   Crudely, badly made stuff that is basically stock imagery used to fill a hole   
   where an image should be, Goulcher explains. It's bottom of the barrel, and   
   barely any conscious thought has gone into why or what it is. This is the   
   lowest-effort tier. Bland visuals slapped onto posts just to have something   
   there. Placeholder content that somehow became the content.    
      
   Clickbait slop   
      
   Stuff that makes us stop scrolling and think god this is disgusting and bad,   
   but its by design to generate conversation, Goulcher says. This ones the most   
   insidious. Its not trying to be good, its trying to be just bad enough to go   
   viral.    
      
   The look what I made! post   
      
   This is where people use AI to create something that looks like LOTR, Star   
   Wars or another behemoth IP because its trained on it, Goulcher tells me.    
   They say things like look what I did in ten mins!! this is going to change    
   the industry and you should be scared and using it now instead of spending   
   thousands with artists. It usually goes down like a sack of bricks. This is   
   the hype-fuelled, tech-bro theatre of generative content. The tone is always   
   breathless, and the results are always underwhelming.    
      
   The genuinely good stuff   
      
   There are actually good AI campaigns, with purpose, permission, and laced    
   with incredible VFX, handcrafted where AI couldn't do the job, Goulcher says.   
   Yes, some brands are doing it well, with thought, care, and actual artistry.   
   But its rare. And usually buried under a steaming pile of junk.    
      
   Breaking it down like this might feel bleak  like weve gone full epidemiology   
   on the most cursed content  but its actually useful. Categorizing the chaos   
   helps explain why AI content feels inescapable, and why it hits so many   
   different shades of dystopian.   
      
   AI for the sake of AI    
      
   Were in an era of AI content being made simply because it can be. People,   
   brands, entire businesses are churning it out. Not necessarily because they   
   have something to say, and not because its better than the alternatives, but   
   because the tools exist, they're easy to use, and the pressure to use them is   
   enormous.    
      
   This speaks to a deeper issue in tech. Just look at Apples recent AI missteps   
   . Despite all the hype, AI isnt delivering the magic it was sold on. Its    
   being shoved into products not because users need it, but because    
   shareholders want to hear AI on earnings calls.    
      
   And right now? Its not revolutionizing much of anything. In fact, in most   
   applications, its starting to look like a very expensive gimmick.    
      
   It reminds me of the early days of torrenting or music streaming  a bit of a   
   Wild West, Goulcher explains. Even though brands whacked a logo on them, it   
   didn't make it ethically good in any way. They were just trying to ride the   
   waves of legality and dosh until legislation kicked in far too late.    
      
   Like crypto or NFTs, we see theres innovation, hype, overuse, and then   
   fatigue. I think we can apply the same tech hype graph to AI content,    
   Goulcher says. There's always something in my gut thats like, this bubble    
   will burst. And I still think that will happen. When AI data sets start    
   eating themselves, and the innovative wow factor wears off  whats left?    
      
   And hes asking the question more of us probably should be: How are any of   
   these billion-dollar tools actually making our lives better? Because the   
   novelty is wearing off, the ethics (or lack of them) are becoming clearer,    
   and the shock value is beginning to wane.   
      
   AI hasnt just broken social media, its broken the truth   
      
   Its not like social media was perfect before this. AI didnt start the rot,   
   things were already slipping. But this latest wave of generative content has   
   pushed it straight into uncanny, derivative, brain-melting chaos.    
      
   And if AI is flooding our feeds with pointless slop, its also doing something   
   more dangerous: weaponizing it. Its easy to laugh at AI-generated celeb    
   babies or cringe at a brand ad that crawled out of the uncanny valley. But   
   that reaction misses the bigger, scarier picture.    
      
   Because AI can fuel misinformation at scale. For example, across Europe,   
   far-right groups are using AI-generated images to provoke outrage, spread   
   conspiracy theories, and stoke division. And these arent just fringe trolls   
   theyre coordinated campaigns, designed to manipulate public opinion.    
      
   Thats just one example. Election misinformation. Deepfake porn. Fake war   
   footage. Yes, it's the kind of content that has always existed online. Only   
   now, the rules have changed. You dont need skills. You dont need a team. You   
   dont even need a budget. Just a narrative and a willingness to abandon   
   reality. And on social media, the rest takes care of itself.    
      
   Thats the real horror story. Not just that were drowning in junk, or that   
   brands think we want AI-generated ads, but that were slipping into a world   
   where whats fake moves faster than whats true. And the algorithm doesnt care   
   if its real  just that its getting your clicks, your likes, your attention.   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/is-ai-like-chatgpt   
   -grok-and-gemini-ruining-social-media-because-it-sure-feels-like-it   
      
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