AI’s destroying seasonal content
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Hi Megan pino, here this week on to touch more. We are excited to welcome W B A all star and president of the players association neca au mci onto the show. We talked about why the players just decided to opt out of their CBA and what she's paying attention to as the league gets more and more popular. Plus we look at how the w could help the N B S lackluster all star games check out the latest episode of a touch more wherever you get your podcast and on youtube.

I am tailer ans. Welcome to our user. Imagine you're sitting at home sipping a pumpkin spice lotte and scrolling your feet. You come across a tweet that says, dreaming of days like this with the perfect photo of a cozy little coffee shop on a rainy autumn day. But then you look closer and something off.

Maybe the bread doesn't look right, or the table is unexpected vely wet, or one of the coffee mugs has an a morice blob float. This is the latest seasonal variety of A I slob. And it's taking over social media.

My guess today is repeats. A senior reporter at voice covering social media and internet culture SHE read about the rise of artificial fall vibes for vox. And today we're going to talk to her about that story and more rebeca. Welcome to power user.

hi. Thanks for having me also, are you guys hearing my cat?

Your cat seems like it's losing IT.

I am so sorry, because of daylight saving time, my cat does not realize that he's not getting fed for another hour. He thinks it's another time, but it's actually an hour. So I very much apologize for me.

Have you seen that me? That's like, they don't know. You don't it's like and it's like animals and they are like they don't know what time like a dinner .

time and the job is like a bowling the owner, yeah that's that's my life today.

So you're at this great piece recently about how A I slop is coming for fall and how basically Oliver instagram you we're seeing A I slop being promoted on these kind of like fall aesthetic pages. Can you tell me a little bit about what's happening and when you started to realize .

this phenomenon? yeah. So I noticed this on X A couple months ago. I feel IT IT was probably like september. And there was a picture of that I definitely thought was just a picture of edinburgh IT like, looked exactly like IT.

But I was like that something was obviously off in the way that AI images are often like this, slightly off, and come from this account, I think, could fall aesthetic with a bunch of fall of models. And its name and IT is like a tony followers, and their photos go really, really viral on twitter. But this one kept getting, quote, tweet being like, why would you need eye to make this? There are million photos if you want to make something looking like edinburgh the fall.

Just google edinburgh, the fall. And so people got really angry about IT. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I wonder if that happening anywhere else. And so then I realize if you search pinches for like fall vibes photos, so many of the top photos were clearly ei generated. And like when you first growing through them, they don't look that different.

But then you're leg, why is this pillow made out of bathmat material? IT was like these very bizarre re telesales signs that we're just like very in city, us. And like as someone who just loves follow a lot, i'd like, what is the point of making this when these images already exists? And that kind of was that our way into like the I slap conversation. I mean.

I feel like there's been so much we've talked about IT regards, say I slap and we know that in addition to like shrimp jesus and all the sort of bizarre of this going grow on facebook, there's also a lot of aspirational home content or luxury content. I think IT was interesting to me about the false stuff is or are both from new england. I think you're from her mind too, which is like the capital of fall exactly.

But so many of this stuff that I saw that was like fall content was of this, like extreme versions of new england. We're like, all of the trees are red and orange in this way that just like doesn't exist in nature. But I think also, people that don't experiences fall might imagine IT to be. And I just I feel I don't know. Like how do you think that these I M changing like our perception of nature?

Yeah no, that's such interesting question. Because I think the same thing kind of happened with like instagram generally like when instagram came out IT like IT really encourage the use of these really heavy filters.

And so IT changed the way we, like saw the world filter. I will remember.

yes, oh my god, is like now we're just so used to seeing you. Influence is used. Face filter is basically on tiktok or something there just like this just makes my lashes a little longer and I just yet completely changes the way we see human faces.

I think that's like, you know, you see plastic surgery transaction, people look more like A U online. And I think the same thing happens to nature when, like for years, you know the most viral foul photos were ones that we're heavily edited. Like as anyone knows, when they go to take a picture of falfani, IT looks like crap.

IT looks Brown in your phone care, right? It's like IT doesn't capture. It's like like a sunset. No photo of a sunset is ever gonna as like magical as IT is in person. But people have found ways to edit their photos to make IT look as medical as IT does. And AI is obviously taking from those heavily edited photos and creating something even more hyper realistic and fake looking, so that IT makes the real world look at dull or too sharp by comparison. And yeah, I think this is a very insidious st way we look at nature, especially when you consider the irony of that, like these technologies use up so much energy that like it's contributing the climate change, which is like making fall disappear in many parts of and so is just like so dark and grim.

I know I feel like we're increasingly like losing access to nature and all and places like just these intense like seasonal moments that we used to have. I mean, one thing with theme accounts, right, especially sort of these like nature driven theme accounts as they are so tight, like reasonable or whether phenomenon like now i'm starting to get all of the like holiday ones because a lot of these ones like piva through the save since and you're seeing these like snowy veld landscapes, you know in a way that I don't know where i'm primates in connect gate like IT hadn't snowed very much for years. You know what you're seeing like this idealized version of the seasons, almost totally and .

like this always bothered me as of a monitor, someone he's very protective, like a sort of specific charm that people love to like commercialize, especially online. Every year you'd get like these really. Like here's IT.

Like our travel guide through the state of vermont, like look at the foliage or or like when exactly to go. And IT just makes IT really important ant to be there because people are expecting IT to be like very luxury and for one is not a very luxurious place, like it's very rustic. And when people kind of painted as this autumn disney land IT sort of works, what IT actually is, which is like a regular place that like happens, have good fully aged.

So that always like really bother me. And then at the same time, you have people doing this for every season possible. So it's like in the summer, it's all about europe, right?

Like you can get away like my yeah positive ono and the spring it's all cottage core. It's all like cute bunnies and and flowery field yeah yeah it's like england is spring medicine. Ia well, summer vermont, new england is the fall and the winter is just like canada, I guess like because that's like, where is snows still? Like, yeah, consistently.

And I really have to notice things that in the pandemic because I think people were really looking for ways to segment that their time. And so I made IT feel like time was passing and moving. And I do think there's that's so much of an echo of this where it's like, you know, more of us are working from home like we want to be reminded that time is passing and things are changing and moving even if maybe we feel like we're stuck or lonely whatever .

yeah I just feel like we're looking for more extreme versions of the seasons yeah like I don't know I mean, of course, when your child like it's all very extreme and IT feels very slow like the feel feel so slow that like you know how mean season seems forever, whatever, but I do feel like I don't know.

I was reading a alley sunburns a today and he was talking about all these influencers putting up their Christmas tree and MC already has like the Christmas lights. And I just IT does feel like just the commodification of everything, like through especially through social media, hasn't made IT where it's like all right now we've rebranded for Christmas now. We've rebranded like almost the way that like department stores would maybe like fifty years ago. But now of all of us do that, especially with our homes, like all of the like home influencers. But do you follow like turtle creek lane, this a moran family in texas that like goes all out for every holiday and truly rebranding their entire house with every single holiday season.

like that stuff i'm like, I do get IT because I think especially about people like that live in like the sun belt or the slip like I have been told that like they tend to really, really emphasize the seasons because you don't get them as much and I like, oh, I get that. But then when IT comes to like you, you have to buy new day core every season. I think that's like incredibly wasteful.

And I read about this a couple years ago with like when everyone was trying to rebrand that fall is like meg ryan fall. And I was just like, all this is this is just ads for clothes, like ads for sweaters and oversize blazers and like little loafers. It's like, this was becoming you another way. And I don't think tiktok shop existed. But now all of these seasonal changes are really just like marketing for dumb affiliate links for like regular tiktok users to be like buy this like two dollar scarf er whatever and it's all that's like.

yeah yeah. I mean, that's kind of like why I think also you're seeing so many of these team accounts like I generated, especially crop up. And I think you know about this too. But like there's this entire like faceless account industry that's like A I sort of automated content used to push. products?

Yeah no, it's like this has becomes such like a monem ker for people because it's litter is so easy to produce. You can produce IT like at scale, especially with A I that like a Normal person making that stuff, couldn't possibly keep up with that. A man, you can like take these courses that teach you how to use ChatGPT and mid journey.

And was like that to go viral on facebook or instagram. New york magazine had one guy in kenya, basically hill like, type to ChatGPT write me ten prompts next to like a picture of jesus that will bring high engaging on facebook. And then he will use those prompts into like mid journey and then post IT.

And then depending on the platform, you can make x amount of money per views and likes. There are tiktok ers making up to five thousand dollars per month. There are facebook ers who say, like they can get like a hundred box per r one thousand likes.

You now can just run these accounts that are incredibly popular and like engaging baby, even though like Normal people that are going to instagram mar whatever, like they're not looking for A I generated stuff. They are looking for actual inspiration like, or they are looking for knitting patterns or something. And now an a slop is taking over that. So it's like these are actual things are like making IT less interesting and fun to be online. It's harder to like find entertaining or informational content on the internet now because .

of this stuff, are we at like peak aspiration internet like so much of IT is just too sperrited. It's like the like vermont houses like too perfect looking or too I mean of course you can like see the world were like A I like ah you know imperfections but like IT also just feels like it's like twisting are like view of the world and kind of like what we aspire to like we will never be able to find that perfect cafe with like the perfect rain, with like perfect everything, like IT seems like so much of like what we were worried about in the twenty hands about like instagram idealises ing life like it's now on super speed with a eye and I don't know. It's just like, it's like, is IT exacerbating these problems?

No, it's absolutely. And I think I feel the same way about I generated like humans, like like the the way that A I makes women look like, you know, always always cleavage, always super tiny ways, like big bobs, like various moving, very like Young looking, like you will have, like the body of like a grown woman, and then like the face of, like a thirteen. Yes, so weird.

And I think like what this is reflective of how the people that run these platforms like want to view the world, and like they want to view the world as unlike wo look at, I will cool our spaces. Here's an A I generate photo of like the stars or ever. And here look at this woman who's like my idea of what a woman is. And so I feel like, as you know, our tech overlords, like we make the world in their image like AI is one way that they're like kind of marketing that vision to the rest of the world. And it's just like ah .

and star also literally just on most recent earnings call, we're going to see more AI and he called the exciting and he's like we were going to have more A I content on the fields like I mean, this is ultimately what they want also because especially met up and soccer, no one is more anti content greater than that like like the creative world. So I think if they're like, oh, great, we can automate content when win. You know.

I think like one of the something I reference in the piece was that leg rather than, you know being concerned about air lab on their platforms on threads, like the official meta account posted A I generated photo of the northern lights over sampling ziska, which like didn't happen .

and like that I did yeah and I think I saw that image. Didn't realize .

that my woman is, can you see the .

northern lights like pretty far south for like at some yeah.

I was like all over the country. But as a former NASA engineer pointed out on that, they like, hey, this is actually like not a good idea to post that gives people really the wrong impression of of what the sky is and yeah but that's just an example I think .

like meta is just the worst offender when you think of like the means streaming of of A I content and the sort of like low quality content and just misinformation and our broken media climate.

yeah and like the censoring of real information and anything like political or our news worthy or our news.

were they at all like they are sensor ing like wild fire information. I mean, the irony of them sensor ing like the amount of legitimate information that we need around about the world around us and then just pumping on a full of AI crap is terrifying. Yeah.

absolutely. I think it's so interesting, ying, that like these companies because we've invested so much in the AI, like they're not going to come out and be like and say that like A I slop is a problem on their platforms because if a is not, it's like it's driving engagement and so it's like, yeah, we're actively like courting your seventy eight year old grandmother to get scammed by some a ion artist like bees to nowhere and it's like but they can come out against IT because they would ve invested so much of their reputations and literal money into whatever A I search tools of their building.

Do you think there's any chance that we're just in sort of like peak A I now like this stuff is just being used by so many scammers and at such slow and like this becomes such a mean that maybe some of these fears are like unfounded and like will actually just start craving worth and the content and this content will be sort of like looked down on like maybe maybe IT won't .

become as Normalized. I would love if that were the case. I just don't I think I think the aesthetic will will evolve honestly.

But I think people are using tools like chat B, T, in very real ways that it's not going to become like a passing trend like the metaverse and web was because people didn't just like there weren't use cases for IT. But I think as AI of all the look of IT will change. But I think the idea that all platforms will be covered in A I slab is a very real fear. And I don't think we're at pick that because people many people will just like hate IT.

then and then go to platforms that aren't covered in A I saw up.

I think that would be great. I think we should do that.

I guess it's t about that matter. Ran all the other platforms out of business .

exactly like there really isn't anywhere else to go like you could see like when everyone when when must cook over twitter and there was this like rush to create the next twitter and none of those have really popped off like the I mean blue sky kind of but like very niche audience threads, like its garbage like the reds is like tough it's a tough read yeah I .

think the fact that like pinch as fAllen says a lot.

I know penrice was like once, like the last basis, a big Normal sea, but it's just covered in ads now and it's just like such a bummer.

We're gna take a quick break when we come back. I'm going to be talking to rebeca about the esthetics of straight man online and war.

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So much of this conversation around aesthetics and idealized images makes me thinks of this other piece that you wrote, I thought was really good. I called the cultural power of the anti woke e tech. bro.

And you sort of examined the atheistic of these men online that also, I think IT levered a lot of like A I A spirited content although I don't think it's like quint fald landscapes. Its more like cyber trucks, energy drinks room full of untainted ly hot women. Can you talk to me about how that aesthetic has emerged and a little bit of what you wrote in that article?

Yeah, for sure. So I feel like that aesthetic is like the esthetic of the entrepreneur hustle guy, the guy who thinks that, you know, the way to live life is to optimize everything they wanted to have the biggest body. They want to drive the biggest truck.

They want to make the most money in the least amount of time. There are always talking about like ten axing. I feel like like something xing as a oh my god.

the great time.

Yes, yeah. Like the people that model their lives after a grand her own type. Gift, how many have been obsessed something before couldn't get off of IT you like .

day and I just can't get get enough of IT.

I think the cyber truck is probably like the best example of the thing that represents what they are. It's like it's kind of like unabashedly ugly. It's like someone else described IT as the one car that you could never compare to a woman because it's just like, so just angular and you know on and IT is just bizarre. Anyway, what I think energy drinks too, you know, that kind of goes with, there's whole like I will optimize my life. And so now you hear them often talking a lot about wellness and promoting these really like junk science things to get you to buy their like vitamins that like will make you like boost your vitality and like boner pills and stuff.

So much of IT. I mean, well, I was actually trying to get like, have you seen the instagram account that's like the .

bali men's retreat? Yes.

a some man, we now need to year, but there's this like men's retreat in bali that is the most like homeostatic like instagram account i've ever seen or it's just like shirtless man. Like do you want to be around other men? Like sharpening your skills? Like against other men like it's just so weird and they just like work out and eat me and I guess talk about like running their drop shipping and fires.

But but I like feels like towards this where, you know, they hear mentioning how like a cyber truck is the one like truck that you can compare to a woman. So much of this esthetic seems driven to appeal to other men and not women like seems like women are sort of almost completely not part of aesthetic in the way like they're just sort of like accessory. But it's really about man appealing to men hundred percent.

And I think like really like a really big fascination of mind is like the growing gender war that's this happening online. It's like you see IT, even among you women who are giving dating advice being like you know like are terrible, so you need to treat them like you know, ATM or something. And then that somehow was really composers ing and then and the other hand you have man being like hoping up with a woman is like the gay st thing you can do, which like it's just like these these really bizarre like twists of of like either therapy speak or like just really old gendered arguments um that are being like like levied against people in this precious moment and then you .

have the rise of, I think a lot of this women's content online that I think a lot of these men get very triggered by which is, I mean, you wrote about this also in a piece about, I think you'd like the Carry brad shows of tiktok and wrote about another woman recently, two who like turned her break up into content and like talk about their relationship and their relationships with men very openly.

I mean, I support like women talking Frankly about their dating experiences. I just think so much of those conversations get warped by this, like mob on tiktok. Or in the case of a lot of people, the desire to find the real people behind these stories.

yeah. Oh my god. yeah. And I read about this with weston, Caleb. I think there's a really good example of like kind of Normal red, the kind of toxic day like he goes to a couple women i'm sorry like this does not need to be like .

say a little bit for people they don't remember like yeah IT was basically, this guy was a fucking boy. He goes to a couple women. These women went on tiktok and there was like a nationwide witch hunt for this man.

Like people were harassing him, like the cove at testing line yeah, but that was one of the few things I got cancelled for on text. Tok, you remember I like posted this, like defensive him. I was like a, hey, like, maybe we shouldn't ducks him. This was like early tiktok days too.

I think this was twenty, twenty one. Were you called not a girl's girl favorite insults?

Like just say you have a fuck.

No oh my god, I like, no.

I just don't know if we should. He should be like fired necessarily when he hasn't really committed and he sort of like, you know, if he had assault at someone is like kind of a deck.

I was like, the whole time, yes. So basically a couple years ago, yes, a bunch of women were like, this guy. Like, you goes to me after, like, a couple of days and i'm like, and like, that's IT and then a couple girls, like, I was out with him too and you as you could frame that story as, like, you know, this is the beauty of social media and female in powerful and and sister hood and solidarity and and what I think what I saw was like, oh no, this can be turned on anyone now and that you know, not a something that we should be encouraging and I think the same thing happened to couch guy who and debating about his experience and slay and I was like, I was worried like he got like, there was adult like psychologists on tiktok being like like they were like looking at his body language. And this was a guy yeah.

just for people they didn't see IT right? IT was like a guy that like hugged his girlfriend in a tiktok video didn't seem enthusiastic enough or something.

Yeah I was because so his girlfriend surprised him at college and when and and SHE filmed her like a self entering. And when SHE entered the room, he was like sitting on the couch with like two girls or something. But he was like a big, like there was like a kind of a party atmosphere. So he was like sitting down with two girls. And when he saw her, he he like, didn't look excited enough for something.

I watched that clip but I was like, oh, that's like sweet but like maybe if I post that or if I filmed that, like maybe I wouldn't post that because I like he didn't look that world but at the same time it's like he was probably like really tired or something and like, who cares it's like because he didn't have like excited enough reaction. Like we've got to find things that are like worth calling out by powerful people. And instead we're using like the mobilization of social media to find this college kid who's like, you know.

didn't really do metro to me. Like the two seem kind of related. They like hyper masculine world. And then this other world, we're like women, or speaking a lot about man in the relationships of man, sometimes in like a way that ultimately kind of cruel .

you know yeah you right. It's like it's one of those things where you know people I think on both sides, it's people viewing life as a springing board to go viral and social media and like people have done that forever. But like is doing IT in a very gender way.

If you go in the comments section of either one of those people, you'll see like it's pretty much all female viewers or it's pretty much all mail viewers unless unless they go so viral that tic crosses IT, makes the jump and is a disaster. And then no, I think those those two kind of pieces of content or so like a satisified diversions of what that means to be a woman versus what IT means to be a man, what IT means to be a woman. Clearly, if you're watching like a lot of dating content, it's like your job is to look pretty and find a man and go on dates and then talk about them to your audience of women in these sort of ways where it's like, so I went out with mr.

Sea and he didn't pull her out for me. But like you pay. It's not always like materialistic like that, but sometimes that is.

And I guess it's a very gender way to center your content, which there is nothing wrong with that. But IT is like because it's so popular, I do think it's like worth pointing out. Yes, things are happening.

Well, this is such a fun chat. Thank you so much for joining power user.

Thanks for having me.

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