Dear Fediverse, thank you for being a safe haven from AI slop.
This morning, I checked out Pinterest for the first time in forever and saw an image purporting to be a LEGO set that was obviously AI generated - yuck!
Then on Reddit's popular page there was a video compilation of people saving children from terrible falls = AI slop.
YouTube's homepage: a short video showing a child and her dog covered in mud = AI slop.
What was I thinking? I should visit #Lemmy and #PeerTube instead...
#NoAI
Jan Dytrych🇨🇿🇺🇦
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Jan Dytrych🇨🇿🇺🇦 • • •@jan awww that's terrible. I'm thinking of the devastating effects on the environment because of the energy required to create that crap... and then I think of my child and the planet we're leaving her... it's just so pointless and enraging and... I have no words 😭
I've become a total Karen but I don't care. If someone in my family fires up ChatGPT during a discussion, I always go: "do you know how many bottles of water your request required? Think of the environment!"
Jan Dytrych🇨🇿🇺🇦
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Amber Grey
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Amber Grey • • •🦄 🅃🅁🄰🄽🅂🄸🄲🄾🅁🄽 🏳️⚧️
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •There are definitely accounts here that post #AISlop images. Many of the ones i see are using them along with the #infosec hashtag which i follow.
While it's certainly better than many other places, there are people who for some reason or another will post links to articles, blogs or whatever and instead of allowing the link preview to generate, will add some AI image.
Usually these are very small accounts here doing it, but i've muted a few large ones doing it as well.
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to 🦄 🅃🅁🄰🄽🅂🄸🄲🄾🅁🄽 🏳️⚧️ • • •@transicorn what I love about chronological feeds and the fact there's no advertising or recommendations shoved in front of our faces is that we can avoid all that in the fediverse... or just quickly hit the "block" or "mute" button.
Not the case on other platforms unfortunately 😭
🦄 🅃🅁🄰🄽🅂🄸🄲🄾🅁🄽 🏳️⚧️
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Yes, that definitely is a huge plus and reason why i've preferred the fediverse for a long time.
I've tried to use IG, i spent 2 years checking out Bluesky until a few months ago but i've used Mastodon and other ActivityPub projects for 8 years now and if this/these places didn't exist in this way, i'm honestly unsure if i'd bother at all with social media.
Mastodon's chronological feeds and lack of advertising make it a great place to be. :)
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to 🦄 🅃🅁🄰🄽🅂🄸🄲🄾🅁🄽 🏳️⚧️ • • •Steggy
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Steggy • • •Ozzelot
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Ozzelot • • •Ozzelot
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Melroy van den Berg
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Melroy van den Berg • • •Ozzelot
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •@melroy
Unhook - Remove YouTube Recommended Videos and More
unhook.appEggs now in different baskets.
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •@ozzelot
I would suggest trying FreeTube and/or Invidious to watch YT videos. FreeTube can be configured in many ways and includes "Distraction Free" settings.
Both break every now and again as YT changes stuff, sometimes for a couple of weeks.
In such situations you can find videos with FreeTube and use tools like yt-dlp to grab videos.
But generally FreeTube works fine.
There are versions of FreeTube for the main desktop platforms as well as Android.
Melroy van den Berg
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Melroy van den Berg • • •@melroy my mother showed AI slop to my 4-year-old... you should have seen my gentle but firm lecture 😅
(thankfully it was only one time and my little one - who has very limited screen time - forgot all about it)
Christoffer S.
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •The amount of slop is genuinely quite concerning.
Have we finally crossed over to crazy town for real, where immediate emotional knee-jerk reactions is all that is required/requested/needed...?
I guess that the cost of producing some AI-slop videos is a fraction of the cost for getting human produced content...
Advertisers are happy because they get moooooare clicks because of more videos. And the circle jerk continues indefinitely.
Emilio ʕ̡̢̡ʘ̅͟͜͡ʘ̲̅ʔ̢̡̢
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Petra van Cronenburg
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Even on Mastodon, I see #AISlop nearly daily (and I already block accounts specialised in that).
The only good difference to big platforms: People often do research and write in comments that it's slop. But the authors nearly never react to such comments, they only look for getting into the trending timeline.
No, the Fediverse can be ugly, too. We have only better filter features and no algorithms for slop.
Sebastian Matyszczak
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •tuti
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •TheFwGuy 🇪🇺🇮🇹🇺🇸🖖
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •For the 99.9999% people use these resources to generate useless crap.
I can see in very small use case the necessity to have something generated by AI but let be honest, 99% of people use them in the worse possible way.
Too many uses AI as an "oracle" assuming it can give "answers" but is NOT the nature of AI to do so!
The bottom line is that to have real benefits from AI, who use it must know what is doing and what the right answer is.
Ignorant people should not be allowed to use an AI and totally agree, the cost to use AI is enormous, it should be illegal to use AI to generate useless crap. Make the people who use it to REALLY pay what it cost.
AI should be used for useful things, scientific research, tech improvements, embedded AI, etc. and should be used by people who knows what they are doing.
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to TheFwGuy 🇪🇺🇮🇹🇺🇸🖖 • • •Wokebloke for Democracy
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Wouter 🇳🇱🇧🇪🇧🇷
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •radioactivestardust
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Clinton
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Pray for Peace. War is evil. War is crazy. Pray f (@Talon123) | Minds
MindsJerked Gherkins
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Vash
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •I did a search for some dog related stuff and wanted to see what other youtubers had to say about it:
9/10 videos were AI and the 10th I was not sure about it.
YT is dead for me, regarding finding information that is. I still watch some channels though, but new trust will be hard to build.
Λευτέρης Τ.
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •One more try
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •- YouTube
www.youtube.comElena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Follow-up to this morning's post about #AIslop.
@bookstardust @lefteristrip23 suggested I could turn off AI-gen image recommendations on #Pinterest. I did - thank you!
No more LEGO AI slop... but now my feed is 100% illustrations with the same style... and I don't know what to trust anymore.
I found an illustration of NYC really odd (Statue of Liberty in the middle of the city?!?), zoomed in and boom: complete gibberish on a store sign (aka surest sign of AI slop).
No more Pinterest for me 😭
Em
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Λευτέρης Τ.
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Λευτέρης Τ. • • •Λευτέρης Τ.
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Erminia Haller
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Erminia Haller • • •@erminiahaller I have no idea TBH. It’s not like you can monetize pin views. I didn’t dare check what it was linking to…
@bookstardust @lefteristrip23
Sylvia
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Sylvia • • •Andy Carolan
in reply to Sylvia • • •@sylvia @bookstardust @lefteristrip23 ArtStation, DeviantArt, Pinterest, and even more surprisingly Adobe Stock, are all filled with the same AI Slop now.
It's frustrating to need to look for the Hide AI toggle before every browse!
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Andy Carolan • • •Andy Carolan
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Andy Carolan • • •Andy Carolan
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Yes... how sick and disturbing is that?!
Every day I question why I'm giving this company money to use their apps. Sadly, I'm stuck with them as my work depends on it.
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Andy Carolan • • •@andycarolan ouf I feel your pain.
When I had to make the Fedi promo video I absolutely had to use AfterEffects (there's no real competitor in the motion graphics sphere, plus I had over a hundred ready-made templates I could use to save time).
I only purchased an Adobe subscription for a month (AE). And canceled it as soon as the video was done.
For editing I learned DaVinci Resolve as I didn't want to give extra $ to Adobe.
It's so sad to see how far down they've fallen, values-wise 😭
「 ⁂ Jürgen ⁂ 」
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •What you created is a great video with a good intend. Even if you used AI by intend it would not become a bad thing.
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to 「 ⁂ Jürgen ⁂ 」 • • •@juergen Oh no, you misunderstood our conversation Jürgen. AE = After Effects, aka Adobe's motion graphics app. I didn't mean AI.
After Effects requires painstaking manual work... I spent a month laboring on the animations for the Fedi promo video... 8 hours a day every day.
I would never ever ever use an AI gen tool in my work. As a creative, I abhor them.
I felt bad giving money to Adobe because the company took a bad turn, values-wise
@andycarolan
「 ⁂ Jürgen ⁂ 」
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Ups my fault. Thanks for the clarification.
@andycarolan
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Sylvia • • •Chris 🦑
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •it's really barely usable anymore. Search for interior or cabins or gardens - it's a mess. Pinterest has become an AI slop spreader to other platforms like tumblr as well.
@sylvia @bookstardust @lefteristrip23
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Chris 🦑 • • •@sturmsucht that’s so sad 😭 my heart goes out to creatives that relied on it for inspiration and/or exposure.
I wonder what people inside the company think about this devolution…
Disclaimer: I had (well have) a popular camera board on Pinterest (36k followers) and I was even invited by the company in 2017 to do a presentation at their London office. Those were the days…
Now I don’t dare add new pins to it in case they are AI slop 😩
@sylvia @bookstardust @lefteristrip23
Chris 🦑
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Oh, those innocent 2017 days..
@sylvia @bookstardust @lefteristrip23
Sylvia
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •@bookstardust @lefteristrip23 That is just ridiculous! Don’t they know they are killing Pinterest?
Etsy is getting worse too.
I was watching a video by a woman who bought sewing patterns on Etsy. It was ALL Ai.
She had a big problem noticing from the ad what was real and what was slop.
Now she intentionally bought obvious AI patterns because she wanted to show how bad they were, but others have no idea that patterns are all stolen and jumbled together in a mess.
The sad thing is that this kills creativity. This kills small businesses whose patterns were stolen by ai to manufacture slop.
When the bubble bursts, and it will because eventually investors will see it’s melting away their money, it will be brutal.
A new generation of creatives has already been ruined. A lot of small businesses in the creative field w
... Show more...@bookstardust @lefteristrip23 That is just ridiculous! Don’t they know they are killing Pinterest?
Etsy is getting worse too.
I was watching a video by a woman who bought sewing patterns on Etsy. It was ALL Ai.
She had a big problem noticing from the ad what was real and what was slop.
Now she intentionally bought obvious AI patterns because she wanted to show how bad they were, but others have no idea that patterns are all stolen and jumbled together in a mess.
The sad thing is that this kills creativity. This kills small businesses whose patterns were stolen by ai to manufacture slop.
When the bubble bursts, and it will because eventually investors will see it’s melting away their money, it will be brutal.
A new generation of creatives has already been ruined. A lot of small businesses in the creative field will have folded. A lot of writers will have drowned in a sea of ai slop flooding the markets.
It’s brutal. This is why having your own websites right now is so essential.
And yes, even with the knowledge that AI will steal all you put on there. I hope it chokes their machines.
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Sylvia • • •@sylvia it's so sad indeed. Initially I thought: if I worked at Pinterest, I would book an emergency company meeting to brainstorm ideas about how to deal with this... and the resulting exodus of real users.
Yes they did create a filter to turn off AI gen images (but only on desktop).
Thing is, when you report a pin, there is a long list of reasons... but not gen AI. I ultimately think they just don't care... they may see any content upload as a good thing 😭
@bookstardust @lefteristrip23
Sylvia
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •@bookstardust @lefteristrip23
I think you hit the nail on the head with that last line: any content is good content to them.
They show they really don't care just with omitting the gen ai option from the report function.
I really loved pinterest, it was a great anti anxiety thing for me to fill my boards, but I just don't care anymore. And even with the filter on, I suspect some images!
Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Sylvia • • •@sylvia aw yes Sylvia, it was my happy place too and I'm so sad about what happened to it.
If I ever return to it, it will only be to browse existing pins I had saved. I'll bookmark my collections homepage now, so I can skip the main feed.
I don't trust the feed one bit and it makes me sad to see gen AI imagery in there 😭
Chuck Miller
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Chuck Miller • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •#AIslop part 3: follow the money
Last night I did a reverse image search for that awful AI-generated illustration of NYC that I had seen on Pinterest... I couldn't find it anymore in my feed and I was curious to see where it was leading... what was the whole point behind it.
Well it lead to... a popular Etsy shop! Someone is creating city illustrations with generative AI and selling digital downloads of them. At 5 dollars a pop.
One of the reviewers wrote: "exactly what I was looking for!" 💀
Michele Adduci
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Jan Dytrych🇨🇿🇺🇦
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to Jan Dytrych🇨🇿🇺🇦 • • •jali
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •jali
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Elena Rossini ⁂
in reply to jali • • •SchellX
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •TarXZ
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Kailas Idavanmuzhi
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •Zło To 🏴☠️ ᵃʷᵃʸ
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •I get where you’re coming from — the amount of auto-generated junk pushed on mainstream platforms has gotten exhausting. It feels like every feed is tuned to maximize engagement, not quality, so once AI sludge performs well, the algorithm just keeps shoveling more of it.
What makes the fediverse refreshing is that it’s still built around people actually choosing what to share, not whatever a ranking system thinks will keep someone scrolling. When you hop back to Lemmy or PeerTube, you at least know you’re dealing with communities that moderate intentionally and don’t pretend algorithmic noise is “content.”
It’s wild how quickly the big platforms slid into this, though — one morning of browsing and suddenly every thumbnail, clip, and “viral” moment feels synthetic. No wonder so many folks retreat to spaces where authenticity isn’t an afterthought.
Honestly, sticking to the fediverse sounds like the healthiest option right now.
... Show more...I get where you’re coming from — the amount of auto-generated junk pushed on mainstream platforms has gotten exhausting. It feels like every feed is tuned to maximize engagement, not quality, so once AI sludge performs well, the algorithm just keeps shoveling more of it.
What makes the fediverse refreshing is that it’s still built around people actually choosing what to share, not whatever a ranking system thinks will keep someone scrolling. When you hop back to Lemmy or PeerTube, you at least know you’re dealing with communities that moderate intentionally and don’t pretend algorithmic noise is “content.”
It’s wild how quickly the big platforms slid into this, though — one morning of browsing and suddenly every thumbnail, clip, and “viral” moment feels synthetic. No wonder so many folks retreat to spaces where authenticity isn’t an afterthought.
Honestly, sticking to the fediverse sounds like the healthiest option right now.
Mark Wyner Won’t Comply
in reply to Elena Rossini ⁂ • • •DuckDuckGo has a search setting that removes AI-generated images from results.
duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help…
How To Filter Out AI Images in DuckDuckgo Search Results - DuckDuckGo Help Pages
DuckDuckGo