"Mark Zuckerberg has been clear about his intentions: He believes that the future of 'social media' is a bunch of human beings scrolling through and arguing about AI-generated content on his many platforms.
Perhaps this is exactly what the Web needs: to become so swamped in trash that consumers decide they want something else. It doesn’t have to mean “going back” to print or offline at all. It just means we’re likely gearing up for a breakthrough that wipes away Google and Meta and the whole first gen of junk. Onward, creative destruction!
Thanks for the post. No one wants to see shrimp Jesus or other ridiculous AI-brainfuck-creations. Now that meta has been training their AI with stolen books and documents, it would be more than reasonable to throw Mr. Michael Knight wannabe (Zuckerberg) behind the bars for the rest of his life. Well, not likely to happen though...these billionaires get their crimes forgiven.
the web is had been dunzo for a while now, ai is the final nail in the coffin. substack and a few non social media websites are all I ever use the web for these days. and we all know substacks' days are numbered until they ruin it just like every other good thing we've had.
I can envision a day where people look back wistfully on the 2010s/early 2020s and say things like "Man, I miss the days of human-made slop." Zuckerberg doubling down on this stuff just means he doesn't care if his platform dies. He made his money, it'll probably be a monkey off his back if it does.
Other than Substack, I rarely look at IG and FB anymore...I just post my art there and sometimes look at the comments. I skip everything else and stopped reporting AI junk. It's a lost battle.
I was always a reader, of, you know, books. In print. I wasn't big into pop culture. But when I was young, there was an argument to be made that mainstream pop culture, which at the time was movies and TV and going to clubs to dance, was more fun than reading. I didn't mostly find it that way, but there was an argument.
And so far, there is actually still a fair amount of stuff on the internet to read or watch that is actually good. But as the amount of AI slop grows, the argument that you should spend time on the modern mainstream internet version of "pop culture" because it's fun . . . kind of disappears. We're at the point mentioned in C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape letters", where the guy arrives in Hell and says "I realize now I have being doing neither what I ought nor what I wanted."
Wasting your life on mindless entertainment is one thing. At least it's entertaining. Wasting your life on mindless boring shit is something else again.
I’ll take the blame…for both calling out Mark Zuckerberg years ago. Making fun of Elon. And going to Venice Beach, while expecting the doctors and police to not have a Bat phone going to both my mothers and wives.
If the AI memes insist making me Shrimp Jesus…it’s because I’m singing at the pool and they call it indecent exposure when I don’t answer the calls from the peanut gallery.
Respect for your post…I create all day with passion. The AI listens from my devices as they attempt to flood me from the internet.
I’m super real and very human. Read my stuff if you like.
Perhaps this is exactly what the Web needs: to become so swamped in trash that consumers decide they want something else. It doesn’t have to mean “going back” to print or offline at all. It just means we’re likely gearing up for a breakthrough that wipes away Google and Meta and the whole first gen of junk. Onward, creative destruction!
Thanks for the post. No one wants to see shrimp Jesus or other ridiculous AI-brainfuck-creations. Now that meta has been training their AI with stolen books and documents, it would be more than reasonable to throw Mr. Michael Knight wannabe (Zuckerberg) behind the bars for the rest of his life. Well, not likely to happen though...these billionaires get their crimes forgiven.
the web is had been dunzo for a while now, ai is the final nail in the coffin. substack and a few non social media websites are all I ever use the web for these days. and we all know substacks' days are numbered until they ruin it just like every other good thing we've had.
I can envision a day where people look back wistfully on the 2010s/early 2020s and say things like "Man, I miss the days of human-made slop." Zuckerberg doubling down on this stuff just means he doesn't care if his platform dies. He made his money, it'll probably be a monkey off his back if it does.
expect more articles like this one
Other than Substack, I rarely look at IG and FB anymore...I just post my art there and sometimes look at the comments. I skip everything else and stopped reporting AI junk. It's a lost battle.
Seems like the only remedy is open source social media along with some kind of outsourced (to the users) human verification check
Aidan Walker amplifies this into what I think is the heart of what’s going on—fiefdoms. Check it:
https://open.substack.com/pub/howtodothingswithmemes/p/everythings-computer-but-how?
I was always a reader, of, you know, books. In print. I wasn't big into pop culture. But when I was young, there was an argument to be made that mainstream pop culture, which at the time was movies and TV and going to clubs to dance, was more fun than reading. I didn't mostly find it that way, but there was an argument.
And so far, there is actually still a fair amount of stuff on the internet to read or watch that is actually good. But as the amount of AI slop grows, the argument that you should spend time on the modern mainstream internet version of "pop culture" because it's fun . . . kind of disappears. We're at the point mentioned in C.S. Lewis' "Screwtape letters", where the guy arrives in Hell and says "I realize now I have being doing neither what I ought nor what I wanted."
Wasting your life on mindless entertainment is one thing. At least it's entertaining. Wasting your life on mindless boring shit is something else again.
I’ll take the blame…for both calling out Mark Zuckerberg years ago. Making fun of Elon. And going to Venice Beach, while expecting the doctors and police to not have a Bat phone going to both my mothers and wives.
If the AI memes insist making me Shrimp Jesus…it’s because I’m singing at the pool and they call it indecent exposure when I don’t answer the calls from the peanut gallery.
Respect for your post…I create all day with passion. The AI listens from my devices as they attempt to flood me from the internet.
I’m super real and very human. Read my stuff if you like.
Go back to news papers and a few trusted sources and then get offline.