Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (2014) s12e16 Episode Script
AI Slop
Welcome to "Last Week Tonight".
I'm John Oliver, thank you so much
for joining us. It has been a busy week.
The Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's
ban on gender-affirming care for minors,
New York City began deciding exactly
how many dead senior citizens
you can hide and still be
considered "the safe choice"
and in Texas, during a routine test
of an unmanned SpaceX rocket,
some small talk on the livestream
was interrupted
after something went a little awry.
And see if you can spot it.
Would they static fire
while it's raining?
Yeah, probably. I mean, even
- That's not good.
- No!
My god.
Ship 36 just blew up.
It just blew up.
So, about those launch dates,
I think that may delay a bit.
Yeah. Yeah, I'd say so!
It's honestly tough to choose
the best response there,
between the two "whoa"s,
the big "no"
and the "oh," pause, "my god."
And I will say, between that
rocket and this relationship,
it has been a big month
for things paid for by Elon Musk
publicly exploding
in a spectacular fashion.
But we're gonna start with the growing
conflict between Israel and Iran.
Last week, Israel launched strikes
targeting Iran's nuclear facilities,
top military figures
and nuclear scientists,
but also hitting apartment
buildings in Tehran.
The strikes are estimated
to have killed over 700 people,
including 285 civilians so far.
And at one point,
Israel even bombed Iran's state TV.
What we see here is the actual
studio where an Iranian state TV anchor
was sitting and reading
the news when the strike hit.
You can see here,
that is an anchor desk right there.
And of course, when it happened,
the anchor was reading the news.
And then all of a sudden,
there was a thud.
The studio went black at the beginning.
She got up and left,
but then later apparently came back
and finished the newscast.
Holy shit! She came back?
That is wild.
To be very clear: I wouldn't
willingly finish this broadcast
if the air conditioning broke.
In response,
Iran launched strikes on Israel,
including one missile
which hit a hospital,
and the country's reported over
20 deaths since the retaliation began.
As for Trump,
he's been all over the place
regarding what America's role
in this might be going forward.
When asked whether the U.S.
might join Israel in air strikes,
this was his response.
Does that mean you haven't made
a decision yet on what to do?
I have ideas as to what to do,
I like to make the final decision
one second before it's due.
Look, it is fine for some
decisions to be last-minute,
what to wear in the morning,
what to order at a restaurant,
whether or not to fake a British
accent for an audition
you'll then have to keep up
for an entire television career,
but entering a war
is not one of them.
And incredibly, his answer
got even stupider from there.
War is very bad. There was
no reason for this to be a war.
There was no reason
for Russia, Ukraine.
A lot of wars
there was no reason for.
You look right up there,
see the Declaration of Independence,
and I say, I wonder if
the Civil War always seemed to me
maybe that could have been solved
without losing 600.000-plus people.
It is absolute malpractice that
the journalists in that room
didn't have at least
two follow-up questions.
One, "Lay out the deal that would've
ended the Civil War sooner,"
"what would your compromise be,"
"and how many fifths of a person
would it entail?"
And two, "Do you actually think"
"the Declaration of Independence
ended the Civil War?"
You know who I feel bad for there?
Not just the Italian soccer team
having to stand
awkwardly behind him,
but that bust of Abraham Lincoln,
staring at the ground,
clearly thinking, "There were literally
four score and seven years"
"between the two events.
I feel like I was clear about this."
The arguments for U.S. involvement
here are not great.
Netanyahu has justified the preemptive
attacks by saying,
"If not stopped,"
"Iran could produce a nuclear
weapon in a very short time."
But it's worth noting,
that's something he's been warning of
for more than 30 years now.
His track record in pushing the U.S.
toward instigating regime change
isn't stellar, given that, in 2002,
he told Congress,
"If you take out Saddam's regime,
I guarantee you that it will have"
"enormous positive reverberations
on the region",
a claim that has aged
like a fine eggnog.
Now, some Republicans,
like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham,
are eager for us to get involved,
but there's actually been some
significant pushback on the right
from "America first" isolationists
like Tucker Carlson,
who had a pretty confrontational
interview with Ted Cruz
about some basic facts.
How many people live in Iran,
by the way?
- I don't know the population.
- At all?
No, I don't know the population.
You don't know the population
of the country you seek to topple?
Okay, how many people
live in Iran?
- 92 million.
- Okay. Yeah.
How could you not know that?
I don't sit around
memorizing population tables.
It's kind of relevant,
you're calling for
the overthrow of the government.
What's the ethnic mix of Iran?
- What percent?
You don't know anything about Iran.
I am not the Tucker Carlson
expert on Iran.
You're a senator who's calling
for the overthrow of the government
and you don't know
anything about the country!
Yeah, it's a fair point.
And it does feel important to say:
I do not like that man Ted Cruz.
I do not like his stupid shoes.
I do not like his lack of knowledge.
I do not like his pics from college.
Nor do I like this other man.
His face looks like a flustered ham.
I'd like to push them in a well.
These men are proof we live in hell.
Now,
that entire video is a bit of a trap,
because you're either going to end up
siding with Ted Cruz or Tucker Carlson,
which is a real "Sophie's Choice",
if she hated both her kids.
After that interview, Cruz posted
this cartoon on social media
of Tucker asking Luke Skywalker
what the population
of the Death Star is.
And I know this isn't his point,
but it's not actually a bad question
for Luke to have reckoned with,
all things considered.
How many widows
are you comfortable making
with your little trick shot, farm boy?
Trump himself actually posted,
"Somebody please explain to kooky
Tucker Carlson that," comma,
quotation mark, space, "Iran
cannot have a nuclear weapon!"
end quotation mark.
Despite his own director of national
intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,
saying in March that Iran is not
building a nuclear weapon,
a finding U.S. intelligence officials
reiterated to reporters just this week.
And it's worth considering
what direct U.S. involvement
would actually mean here.
The U.S. is apparently considering
dropping a "bunker buster" bomb
on Fordo,
Iran's most fortified nuclear facility,
which is built
deep inside a mountain.
The weapon we're considering
is 30.000 pounds and 20 feet long,
and has never been used
in combat before.
It's called
a "Massive Ordnance Penetrator",
which is not only a way too
sexual-sounding name for a bomb,
it also abbreviates to MOP.
And I don't love that you could
potentially start World War III
by dropping a MOP.
Crucially,
Israel doesn't have that bomb,
or indeed,
the aircraft necessary to deploy it,
so we'd have to, which would obviously
be a direct military intervention.
And it's not like we can just leave
the bomb on the curb in Tel Aviv
with a little sticky note that says,
"Still works, no bedbugs."
And as for what this
would actually accomplish,
some experts suggest
a successful attack
would simply set Iran's nuclear
program back by a year or two.
Which is pretty galling,
given Trump arguably got us
into this situation in the first place,
after abandoning
the Iran nuclear deal back in 2018.
America getting directly involved here
would massively escalate things,
with no guarantee regarding
what the outcome would be.
And yet, we're right on the edge
of doing exactly that.
As for whether Trump
actually calls a strike,
it seems that nobody,
including him, has any real idea.
You don't know that I'm gonna
even do it. You don't know.
I may do it, I may not do it. I mean,
nobody knows what I'm gonna do.
I will say,
he's not technically wrong there.
The problem is
that when Trump says that,
he thinks it makes him
sound like a chess master,
when in reality it makes him
sound like a cow flying a plane.
Nobody knows
what I'm gonna do,
but it's reasonable to assume
it's not gonna end great!
So, in the meantime,
we're in limbo.
We're taping this on Saturday,
so by the time this airs,
who knows what could've happened?
Maybe the situation's unchanged.
Maybe Trump already
dropped the MOP.
Maybe Ted Cruz spent
the last few days reading
"A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind"
just to spite Tucker Carlson,
but fell in love with the country's
rich cultural tapestry
and decided to move to Tehran.
Who really knows?
But right now,
I do know three things for sure:
this situation is very worrying,
we don't want to be dragged into
yet another war in the Middle East,
and for the record, if there is ever
an explosion, a fire drill,
or even a medium-sized mouse
anywhere near this desk,
unlike this woman,
I am fucking out of here!
And now, this.
And Now: Local News Celebrates
National Eat Your Vegetables Day.
Sorry, it's what? Our national day
is the National Vegetables Day?
Yeah,
National Eat Your Vegetables Day.
Yeah, kids.
Won't be partaking,
but kids should definitely.
Absolutely.
So, we are asking you this morning
in our Hometown Hellos
what your favorite veggies are.
I'm gonna have to go with asparagus,
especially with a steak,
mashed potatoes, stuff like that.
You really cannot go wrong
if you've ever had asparagus.
You said you've never
had asparagus.
- Never had it, but willing to try it.
- I think you'll like it.
And David Blakeman says
good morning from Leaf
and that his wife, Bebe,
loves butter beans.
So, he says that they're going
to have butter beans in heaven
so she better like them.
They're gonna be in heaven.
You definitely
better like them there.
I've gotten to the point now,
when I see a vegetable
I don't really care for,
I'll eat it.
- Really?
Just trying to broaden your palette.
I've just decided,
you know what, it doesn't matter.
Says good morning from Bay St. Louis
and that he likes bacon.
Not quite a vegetable,
but I like the spirit.
Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns the internet.
It gave us unprecedented access to
the entirety of human knowledge,
and more recently,
this heartwarming video
of a single cat raising his son alone,
that takes, I'm gonna warn you,
a very dark turn.
Yeah, I know!
The CGI Garfield movie goes so much
harder than you remember.
The only thing more upsetting
than that video
is that one of the top comments
on it is someone asking,
"Is this real?"
And if you wrote that,
lean in close.
Everyone else just please
cover your ears real quick,
because this next part is just
between me and them, okay?
Yes. Those are real cats.
They're my cats, in fact.
I know you're thinking,
"Why are they wearing clothes?"
It's because I taught them shame.
Now, I'm about to lie to everyone else
and say they're not real, but you
and I will always know the truth.
Okay? Okay.
So, clearly they're not real.
But another comment
under that video simply says,
"Why did I watch this and why does
this have almost 16 million likes?"
And that's actually what we're going
to be talking about tonight.
Because that video
was made with AI.
It's one of dozens of similar
videos by the same creator.
And if you've been seeing
more stuff like that lately,
it's because the spread
of AI generation tools
has made it very easy to mass-produce
and flood social media sites
with cheap, professional-looking,
often deeply weird content.
There's even a name for it: AI slop.
And it can come in lots of forms.
It can be news articles,
or music on Spotify,
but you've probably encountered it
the most in weird images
and videos that have begun
to dominate everyone's feeds,
whether it's images
of a Jesus made out of shrimp,
or videos like Barron Trump wowing
the judges on "America's Got Talent"
while his dad plays backup piano,
a pug raising a baby
on a desert island,
or Pope Francis taking a selfie with
Jesus while flying through heaven.
And my favorite part there
is that AI somehow chose
to give Jesus a watch.
And I love the idea
that every once in a while,
Jesus in heaven looks down
at his watch and goes,
"Shit, it's already 4:00 PM?
I'm late to go flying"
"with one of the three dead popes
that actually made it up here!"
Slop can be incredibly popular.
This AI soup recipe
was the seventh most viewed post
on Facebook at the end of last year.
And at another point,
three of the top 20 most seen
posts there were AI-generated,
including this one of a giant fan bed,
which had 35 million views.
And at the start of this year,
this image of a horse made out of bread
got nearly 50 million
views on Facebook,
and was even "loved"
by Mark Zuckerberg.
AI slop is basically
the newest iteration of spam.
As the CEO of one AI content
detection platform put it,
"Not all AI content is spam, but
right now all spam is AI content."
And it's becoming
a problem on multiple levels.
For a start,
websites that were previously useful
are now becoming much less so,
as this woman makes clear.
Pinterest is becoming unusable,
and I just need to talk about it.
This is me just searching "garden",
and almost everything is AI-generated.
Like, what is that cat?
I keep scrolling,
and, like,
you literally click on anything,
and it's like, this is so obviously AI,
and it's so frustrating.
I want actual images.
Pinterest used to be my favorite app
and a place for people
to share pictures they've taken,
and for other people
to be inspired by those pictures.
But now, it is just exhausting
and gives me a headache
every time I try to use it.
I know she might seem calm there,
but for a Pinterest user,
that is white-hot rage.
She is seconds away from
knitting a full-blown manifesto.
But it's not just Pinterest.
There's now a booming market
of AI-generated videos about
completely fictitious news stories,
like this one, titled "Judge Fines
Karoline Leavitt for Wearing a Cross",
misspelled,"Only to Discover
She's a Legal Genius."
It is 37 minutes long,
has over a million views,
and here's just a taste
of the court proceedings.
"That cross", Hargrove pointed at her
neck, his tone rigid.
"It doesn't belong here.
The courtroom is a neutral place,"
"not somewhere to display faith."
She realized instantly
Hargrove wasn't just targeting her,
but the cross itself,
a symbol he seemed to despise.
Yeah, the news!
You know how the news is.
Hal9000's voice, comic book font,
and, of course,
third-person omniscient narration.
That channel has fake confrontations
that follow a similar formula,
like "Karoline Leavitt
Bankrupts 'The View'",
"Brad Pitt Storms Off After Heated
Clash with Karoline Leavitt,"
"Karoline Leavitt
Mocked by Famous Pianist"
"Then She Played
and Silenced the World",
and my personal favorite,
"Pope Leo XIV Orders Karoline Leavitt
to 'Take Off the Cross.'"
Which makes sense, doesn't it?
You can't wear that in here, Karoline!
This is the fucking Vatican!
Have some respect!
The problem is, the comments
section under that courtroom video
is filled with people who clearly have
no idea that it isn't real,
saying things like, "What a tremendous
victory for Christians everywhere",
"Proud of you Karoline, for putting
that judge in his place"
and "Intelligence for once, she is
a force to be reckoned with."
And when one commenter
points out that the video is fake,
a reply says, "No, it happened,
but it was Pam Bondi."
"I just watched a YouTube video."
Because, of course, there are also
multiple slop videos out there
where the exact same thing
happens to Pam Bondi.
If that's starting to give you an uneasy
feeling in your stomach right now,
get used to it, because it seems
extremely likely
that we're going to be drowning in
this shit for the foreseeable future.
So, given that, tonight,
let's talk about AI slop:
what it is, where it comes
from, and the harm it can do.
And before we take all of the
fun out of it, I'll acknowledge:
some AI-generated content
can be enjoyable.
Exhibit A:
"Cat-Chester by the Sea."
Which makes sense, the whole
point is to grab your attention.
That is why you'll see visually
arresting stuff,
like videos of incredibly buff babies,
or cute dogs working human jobs,
or people transforming
into fruits and vegetables.
That is actually
a weirdly common trend,
and I think my favorite version
of it might be this.
He's back!
Okay,
I have so many questions there,
from why Cabbage Hulk
kept his human hands,
to why he tore his own head off
to reveal a different kind of cabbage.
But the one thing
I know for sure is,
he better stay the fuck away
from my wife. Stay away from her!
Now, as for AI music,
at first,
it can sound pretty close
to the real thing,
like this country song, whose lyrics
are only about 15 degrees off.
This wicked dust,
it'll drag you down,
Choke your soul,
bury your crown.
In the shadows,
where nightmares rust,
can't escape the grip
of this wicked dust.
Cool.
That is from a band
called The Devil Inside,
and one good clue
their music is AI-generated
is that they've put out over
10 albums in the past two years.
Other clues include
that they complain about "wicked dust"
twice in the same chorus,
and two of their top five songs
on Spotify are also dust-related,
which makes this feel
less like a "dark country" band
and more a secret ad
for Swiffer.
It is now incredibly easy
to create slop like that.
Which, as this CEO of
an AI music generator points out,
is one of its key selling points.
It's not really enjoyable
to make music now.
- Why do you say that?
It takes a lot of time.
It takes a lot of practice.
You need to get really good
at an instrument
or really good
at a piece of production software.
I think the majority of people
don't enjoy the majority of the time
they spend making music.
Okay, first,
and this is a hot take,
I think a lot of people might
actually enjoy making music.
It's probably
why they were doing it
for the 40.000 years
of human history prior to AI.
But if that is not you,
and you would rather make music
by simply pressing a button,
then good news:
you don't need AI,
there are already a wide variety
of toys made for babies just like you.
But he is right that AI tools
have now reduced
the barrier of entry to people
who want to produce writing,
images, or music
that can seem plausibly professional.
And even big platforms
are now getting in on this.
Here's Mark Zuckerberg
proudly unveiling a new suite
of AI tools for Meta users.
We call it Emu,
for "expressive media universe",
continuing with our animal theme.
And just
take a look at these images.
Because today, we're starting
to roll out a bunch of products
with this in it.
They're high-quality, photorealistic.
But one of the coolest things
is that Emu generates them fast.
First, that is the least charismatic
product demo I've ever seen.
You think Steve Jobs
would be caught dead
uttering a dud phrase like
"continuing with our animal theme?"
He'd sooner acknowledge
his own children.
But Zuckerberg's obviously trying
to make sure Meta capitalizes
on the popularity of AI by keeping it
within their ecosystem.
He's said that adding
AI images to user feeds
is the next "logical jump"
for Facebook and Instagram.
They've even tweaked
their algorithm
so that more than a third of what
people see on their Facebook feed
now comes
from accounts they don't follow.
That's how slop sneaks in
without your permission.
So, it seems to be good business
for them.
But what's in it
for the people that produce it?
Well, platforms like Meta,
Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok
now have monetization programs,
where they make direct payments
to people who successfully go viral.
And there's now a whole industry
of AI slop gurus
offering to sell you their secrets
of how to make profitable slop
for a small fee.
Remember that cat video from before?
Here's its creator trying
to sell you a training course.
Do you want to go viral and
make the same videos as I do?
It's really simple.
Click the link in my bio
and I'll guide you
step by step on how to do it.
That class costs 17.99 and will
supposedly "unlock the secrets"
"to crafting viral cat AI videos
that capture hearts on TikTok."
And you know who should be
pissed off about that
more than anyone else?
Cats.
They've been going viral
since the dawn of the internet,
and now along comes this
sombrero-wearing motherfucker,
who isn't even a real cat,
by the way,
trying to cut them out
of the profits.
Cats would be so mad about this
if they ever gave a single shit
about anything humans do.
Now, the good news is,
you don't need to give your credit
card number to an AI cat,
because I'll give you the three
basic steps for free.
It's pretty simple.
Step one:
you make a page on a social
media app and build a following.
While most platforms require
a certain threshold of followers
or engagement
before they'll pay you,
you can easily get around that
by buying a pre-existing account
like this one, that already
has thousands of followers.
Then comes step two:
create and post as much
engagement-bait slop as possible.
Here is a video by another slop guru,
showing you just how quickly
that can be done.
So, what we're gonna do,
we're going to type in
"home decor inspiration Pinterest".
Why? Why Pinterest?
Because Pinterest
is a heavy image-based platform.
And what you're gonna find
as we scroll through these,
probably 80% of these
images are AI-generated now.
What's so cool is that we can come
to this free tool right here,
Ideogram, and ask it,
"Create a beautiful bedroom design"
"with black curtains
and make it hyper-realistic."
You're gonna find that the images
just rendered.
And right off the bat, for free,
we have four images
that could do really well.
Okay, putting aside those photos
look like a suicidal West Elm,
that is why Pinterest
is drowning in AI now,
and why users like this woman
are swearing vengeance
with their indoor voice.
And yet, the maker of that video
is willing to take 379 dollars from you
to teach you more.
But it's not just Pinterest photos.
Here's another guru explaining how
you can buy his proprietary AI tool
to make literally
every part of a viral video.
Let's, for example,
do a funny texting story,
and then let's go down here
and select "gameplay video".
And let's do Subway Surfers for
the background of this one.
Click "generate". Just like that,
our next video is done.
Let's take a look
at what it looks like.
Ever send a text
that completely backfired?
Let me tell you about my friend Jake.
One day,
he meant to text his girlfriend,
"Can't wait to see you tonight",
but instead
he accidentally sent it to his boss.
His boss replied,
"I hope this isn't about work."
Panicking,
As you can see, it's got a great
original story that could go viral
on social media on any
of those short-form platforms.
And you can make hundreds
of these every single month
and all you need
is a couple to take off
to potentially make a real
business out of even doing this.
Yeah, all he did
was type "funny texting story"
and AI vomited out the rest.
Although, to be fair,
I don't know if you can call
"accidentally sending a text"
a "great original story",
as it's one of the four
basic plots of any sitcom,
along with "accidentally scheduled
two dates at the same time",
"roommates divide
the apartment in half with tape"
and "Blues Travelers' bus broke down
and now they're comin' to dinner!"
Still, as that leather-clad
child explained,
AI slop is ultimately a volume game,
like any form of spam.
Slop creators will often jump
on a trend that feels
like it's got any kind of traction.
So, if one type of image
or video goes viral,
they'll churn out
hundreds of copycats.
That's why, suddenly,
you might start seeing a ton of old
people posing with birthday cakes.
In that one, it's apparently
the 100th birthday
of a woman named "Dutndouy".
Similarly, you may've seen images
of soldiers holding up signs
about how it's their birthday,
or people posing next to wood
carvings of animals
with captions like,
"Made it with my own hands."
But interestingly, when internet
sleuths traced this AI image,
which has nearly a million likes,
back to what seems to be
its original source,
it turned out to be this real image
of an actual wood carving
created by an artist
named Michael Jones.
He's apparently based in England
and does some amazing work.
Look at this carving of a horse,
or this one
of whatever the fuck that is.
Those are real sculptures
he made with a fucking chainsaw.
And yet, his work has been stolen
and turned into endless variations.
And he himself has said getting
ripped off by slop
is a huge issue for him
and other carvers all over the world
who are sadly missing out on the
rightful credit exposure to their work,
which makes sense.
And it is a good reminder
that AI generators rip off the work
of actual artists
without compensating them.
But assuming that you,
as a slop creator,
don't give a shit about that,
you can simply move on to step three:
getting paid.
And there are a couple
of ways to do this,
from being paid directly by
the platform, like I mentioned earlier,
to other revenue streams,
based around affiliate marketing,
or linking to items for sale online.
For instance, this slop account
on Instagram
features a variety of AI videos,
from world leaders
walking the catwalk as babies,
to videos of animals
attacking each other,
like this elephant absolutely
going to town on an alligator.
Now,
if you go to the bio on that page,
you'll see it links to this site
selling all sorts of random products
that they'll get a commission from
if you buy them,
from snap-on teeth veneers, to this
weird duck-shaped pillow for infants
which brags
that it's somehow based
in "research and development
for stunned babies",
to this, quote,
"Naughty Boy Creative Table Lamp",
whose switch is his tiny dick.
And look, it is wedding season,
and if you want to go off-registry,
that is all the way off.
Now, I'm guessing you can't make
a ton of money off that.
And honestly, you're unlikely to make
a ton from the platforms, either.
Because for all the talk of riches
on those slop gurus' videos,
the money involved here
can be relatively small.
On Meta, for instance, one reporter
found that payments for single images
could vary
from just a few cents per photo
to hundreds of dollars
if it goes megaviral.
And while that clearly
isn't enough to live on,
it can be more appealing
if you live in a country
where that kind
of money goes further.
That is why many slop pages now
operate from places like India,
Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia
and Pakistan.
But there are some real downsides
to the unchecked growth of all of this.
Some of which are, admittedly,
pretty minor,
like the fact that lots of us are now
having to explain to our parents
that the unbelievable thing that they
saw on Facebook is not real.
Look at this owl! He's beautiful!
It's a Norwegian giant owl!
- In Norway!
- Mother.
Dude, that's not a real cat.
Can you see that?
Do you see how, like, soft it is?
What do you mean
it's not a real cat?
- That is ridiculously cute.
- Mom.
- How is that real?
- Mom, that's AI.
- Is it?
- That's fake.
- No fuckin' way.
- That's not real.
The motherfuckers!
Yeah, the motherfuckers, indeed.
And real quick,
for anyone watching this,
here's a pretty good rule of thumb:
if you see an animal
that's so cute it defies reality,
and it is not Moo Deng,
odds are it's AI.
But we've clearly got bigger problems
than people being duped
by non-existent animals.
There's an environmental impact
from the energy and resources
consumed
in producing all of this shit.
And then there's the fact
some slopmakers specialize
in videos that claim
to depict real-world calamities,
which can lead to the spread
of worrying misinformation like this.
These explosions are fake, but
they've racked up millions of views.
They've already been shared
across social media,
including this claim
that the explosions are in Ukraine.
Before this account disappeared,
a reverse image search
could take you back to the creator
with more videos.
And they all have similar issues.
See how huge this white car looks?
And also,
how are these homes still standing
with a gigantic fireball
behind them?
And the audio track is the same
in every vid.
So, why make content like this?
This creator used to make videos
about tornadoes, and before that,
about planes on fire,
possibly experimenting
in the hopes of going viral.
Come on!
Air travel is scary enough now
without people
making up new disasters.
It's why you have to be careful
and look for clues,
like how the side of that plane says
nonsense like "frcananc-faia"
and not something much more
believable like "Boeing".
The thing is, sometimes,
fake videos about news stories
can really catch on.
During the L.A. fires,
a lot of people were initially fooled
by photos and videos like this one of
the Hollywood sign engulfed in flames.
That was pretty unnerving
to L.A. residents,
like these two men who went
to check it out in person.
When we saw the posts on Instagram,
we were devastated.
We lived here all our lives,
and when we saw that
on Instagram it broke our hearts,
so we wanted to
come and see firsthand.
- There's no fires.
- No fires and they're faking it.
You know, when people are
actually losing their houses.
You guys
should help each other out,
instead of trying to create false
narratives and trying to promote BS.
He's right.
You shouldn't be faking calamities,
if for no other reason than
you could make those two so worried
they trek up to the Hollywood sign,
a hike that's a mixed bag
even when it isn't on fire,
since it has online reviews like,
"Watch out for all the horse poop",
"There was a lot
of horse poop on the floor",
"This trail stinks!
Because of all the horse poo"
and my personal favorite,
"You should never hike
this trail during a windstorm."
"I was being hit by flying
bits of dried horse poop"
"for about three-quarters of a mile,
before deciding to turn back."
"It was something. At this point,
I decided to abort my hike,"
"and ran back to my car."
"I had bits of dried horse poop
stuck in my hair and my sweater!"
"I had a good laugh about it after,
but listen to me, children:"
"never hike this trail if it gets too
windy. You have been warned!"
And it's not just the fires.
Right now, the Israel-Iran conflict
has unleashed
a wave of AI disinformation,
with one expert saying
it's "the first time we've seen"
"generative AI be used
at scale during a conflict."
And during last year's flooding
in North Carolina,
a bunch of fake images
started circulating online,
which quickly became a problem
for first responders.
We saw a flood of images
on social media depicting,
and here they are
on your screen right now,
depicting what appear to be
victims in the flood.
And what happened was the relief
workers also who use social media
to, for example, find areas where,
people might need rescue,
like this person rescuing a dog
or what looked to be,
you know, a toddler being rescued.
They use social media just like us
to look for areas that need help.
And so,
this was creating a lot of noise,
and it was making it more
difficult for them to act quickly.
Yeah,
you don't want emergency personnel
allocating resources
based on fake information.
Although, I will say,
if medics are gonna rush to
the scene of an AI-generated video,
for god's sake,
make it this one.
Somebody send an ambulance
to that poor cabbage man!
He just tore the top half
of his purple head off!
He cannot be okay!
You may remember that those images
were also used by Republicans
as evidence that President Biden
was failing to deal with the emergency.
One member
of the Republican National Committee
actually posted that photo
of the girl with a puppy, captioned,
"This picture has been seared
into my mind. My heart hurts."
But even after being told it was fake,
she refused to take it down,
writing, "I don't know where
this photo came from"
"and honestly, it doesn't matter."
"It is emblematic of the trauma
and pain people are living through."
And it's pretty fucking galling
for the same people who spent the past
decade screaming "fake news"
at any headline they didn't like,
to be confronted
with actual fake news
and suddenly
be extremely open to it.
You can't just believe something
because you saw it in a picture.
Otherwise, our graphics team
could make you believe
any sad situation, like Oscar
the Grouch is in the Illuminati,
or that Bigfoot is having trouble
selling his feet pics online.
Actually, that is compelling.
I don't care where it came from.
But it's seared into my heart.
Now, I will say, at least when
it came to last year's elections,
many experts agree that AI's negative
impacts were far less extreme
than originally feared.
And it is good that large groups
of people weren't fooled
into thinking that Kamala Harris
wore a communist uniform,
or that Trump
was violently arrested,
or that Biden put on a Trump hat,
except, wait, that last one was
actually real. He really did that.
Two months before Election Day.
How on Earth did Democrats lose?
But even if people treated fake images
last year with skepticism,
there are two catches.
First, AI is already significantly
better now than it was then,
so it may be easier to fool them
going forward.
And second, the very fact people
doubted what they saw on the internet
actually comes
with a bit of a downside,
as this disinformation researcher
explains.
Because people know that
something might be a deepfake,
they actually then stop believing
in real things that did happen.
And they kind of discount
a true story
because they're able
to tell themselves,
"I think that might be a deepfake,
actually."
Right. It's not just that
we can get fooled by fake stuff.
It's that the very existence of it then
empowers bad actors
to dismiss real videos
and images as fake.
It's an idea called the "liar's
dividend", which I know sounds
like an airport spy thriller
James Patterson shit out in a weekend.
But it is a real problem.
And you don't have to look far
to see people doing this.
A lawyer for one
of the January 6th defendants
argued that the government's
evidence was deepfaked,
which is an extremely funny thing
to say about a coup attempt
that was livestreamed.
And just two weeks ago, when
Gavin Newsom posted this real photo
of soldiers deployed to L.A.
sleeping on the floor,
the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer
retweeted a claim
that it was fake, saying,
"Looks like Gavin Newsom used an
AI photo to smear President Trump."
And, of course,
Trump's done this too.
He falsely claimed photos
of Kamala Harris
greeting a large crowd
were AI-generated,
and when Democrats cut together
video of him having "old man" moments
he blamed that on AI as well,
saying,
"Artificial intelligence was used by
them against me in their videos of me."
Which actually might be the most
AI-generated sounding sentence
in this entire piece.
So, to summarize, AI slop can be
somewhat lucrative for its creators,
massively lucrative for the platforms
that use it to drive engagement,
and worryingly corrosive to the general
concept of objective reality.
And now I've shown you
a simple three-step process
on how to make it.
But, you know, please don't.
Especially given I just saved you
from paying 17.99 to a cat
in a sombrero.
So, what can we do?
Well, the truth is, not a lot.
Some platforms
have started labeling AI content,
but even those attempts
have been lackluster.
Meta, for instance,
recently started requiring an AI label
when content is realistic,
but notably, that only applies
to audio and video, not to images.
And if creators don't actively
add those labels,
it can be hard
for a platform to detect AI,
as it's getting increasingly hard
to spot.
On an individual level, if you're
sick of all the slop in your feed,
you can block accounts that post it,
or click "not interested",
which might reduce the amount
of it that you see.
But that's not gonna stop it all.
And look, I'm not saying some
of this stuff isn't fun to watch.
What I am saying is, some of
it's potentially very dangerous,
and even when it isn't,
the technology that makes it possible
only works because it trains
on the work of actual artists.
So, any enjoyment you might
get from weird, funny AI slop
tends to be undercut when you know
that someone's hard work was stolen
in order to create it.
So, I don't have a big fix for all
of this, or, indeed, any of it.
What I do have, though,
is a petty way to respond.
Because perhaps one small way
to get back
at all the AI slop ripping off artists
would be to create real art
by ripping off AI slop.
So, please, come with me.
Come with me.
Because we managed to track down
Michael Jones, the chainsaw artist,
and we commissioned
a special piece from him,
ripping off
what I consider to be
the finest, most inexplicable piece
of slop produced to date.
So, ladies and gentlemen,
I proudly present:
from the chainsaw
of Michael Jones,
a carved manifestation
of the cabbage hunk!
Look at him, in all his muscular
cabbage glory!
Look at the details there!
This thing is an absolute masterpiece!
And seeing this,
doesn't it make you want to thank
the real artist who made it?
Well, I've got some great
news for you, you can do that,
'cause we flew him here, too!
Michael is here!
Michael Jones, everyone!
Michael Jones!
Thanks so much, mate. Fantastic.
What a fun way to celebrate
the destruction of our shared,
objective reality!
We are fucked!
That is our show, thank you
so much for watching.
We'll see you next week, good night!
Michael Jones!
I'm John Oliver, thank you so much
for joining us. It has been a busy week.
The Supreme Court upheld Tennessee's
ban on gender-affirming care for minors,
New York City began deciding exactly
how many dead senior citizens
you can hide and still be
considered "the safe choice"
and in Texas, during a routine test
of an unmanned SpaceX rocket,
some small talk on the livestream
was interrupted
after something went a little awry.
And see if you can spot it.
Would they static fire
while it's raining?
Yeah, probably. I mean, even
- That's not good.
- No!
My god.
Ship 36 just blew up.
It just blew up.
So, about those launch dates,
I think that may delay a bit.
Yeah. Yeah, I'd say so!
It's honestly tough to choose
the best response there,
between the two "whoa"s,
the big "no"
and the "oh," pause, "my god."
And I will say, between that
rocket and this relationship,
it has been a big month
for things paid for by Elon Musk
publicly exploding
in a spectacular fashion.
But we're gonna start with the growing
conflict between Israel and Iran.
Last week, Israel launched strikes
targeting Iran's nuclear facilities,
top military figures
and nuclear scientists,
but also hitting apartment
buildings in Tehran.
The strikes are estimated
to have killed over 700 people,
including 285 civilians so far.
And at one point,
Israel even bombed Iran's state TV.
What we see here is the actual
studio where an Iranian state TV anchor
was sitting and reading
the news when the strike hit.
You can see here,
that is an anchor desk right there.
And of course, when it happened,
the anchor was reading the news.
And then all of a sudden,
there was a thud.
The studio went black at the beginning.
She got up and left,
but then later apparently came back
and finished the newscast.
Holy shit! She came back?
That is wild.
To be very clear: I wouldn't
willingly finish this broadcast
if the air conditioning broke.
In response,
Iran launched strikes on Israel,
including one missile
which hit a hospital,
and the country's reported over
20 deaths since the retaliation began.
As for Trump,
he's been all over the place
regarding what America's role
in this might be going forward.
When asked whether the U.S.
might join Israel in air strikes,
this was his response.
Does that mean you haven't made
a decision yet on what to do?
I have ideas as to what to do,
I like to make the final decision
one second before it's due.
Look, it is fine for some
decisions to be last-minute,
what to wear in the morning,
what to order at a restaurant,
whether or not to fake a British
accent for an audition
you'll then have to keep up
for an entire television career,
but entering a war
is not one of them.
And incredibly, his answer
got even stupider from there.
War is very bad. There was
no reason for this to be a war.
There was no reason
for Russia, Ukraine.
A lot of wars
there was no reason for.
You look right up there,
see the Declaration of Independence,
and I say, I wonder if
the Civil War always seemed to me
maybe that could have been solved
without losing 600.000-plus people.
It is absolute malpractice that
the journalists in that room
didn't have at least
two follow-up questions.
One, "Lay out the deal that would've
ended the Civil War sooner,"
"what would your compromise be,"
"and how many fifths of a person
would it entail?"
And two, "Do you actually think"
"the Declaration of Independence
ended the Civil War?"
You know who I feel bad for there?
Not just the Italian soccer team
having to stand
awkwardly behind him,
but that bust of Abraham Lincoln,
staring at the ground,
clearly thinking, "There were literally
four score and seven years"
"between the two events.
I feel like I was clear about this."
The arguments for U.S. involvement
here are not great.
Netanyahu has justified the preemptive
attacks by saying,
"If not stopped,"
"Iran could produce a nuclear
weapon in a very short time."
But it's worth noting,
that's something he's been warning of
for more than 30 years now.
His track record in pushing the U.S.
toward instigating regime change
isn't stellar, given that, in 2002,
he told Congress,
"If you take out Saddam's regime,
I guarantee you that it will have"
"enormous positive reverberations
on the region",
a claim that has aged
like a fine eggnog.
Now, some Republicans,
like Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham,
are eager for us to get involved,
but there's actually been some
significant pushback on the right
from "America first" isolationists
like Tucker Carlson,
who had a pretty confrontational
interview with Ted Cruz
about some basic facts.
How many people live in Iran,
by the way?
- I don't know the population.
- At all?
No, I don't know the population.
You don't know the population
of the country you seek to topple?
Okay, how many people
live in Iran?
- 92 million.
- Okay. Yeah.
How could you not know that?
I don't sit around
memorizing population tables.
It's kind of relevant,
you're calling for
the overthrow of the government.
What's the ethnic mix of Iran?
- What percent?
You don't know anything about Iran.
I am not the Tucker Carlson
expert on Iran.
You're a senator who's calling
for the overthrow of the government
and you don't know
anything about the country!
Yeah, it's a fair point.
And it does feel important to say:
I do not like that man Ted Cruz.
I do not like his stupid shoes.
I do not like his lack of knowledge.
I do not like his pics from college.
Nor do I like this other man.
His face looks like a flustered ham.
I'd like to push them in a well.
These men are proof we live in hell.
Now,
that entire video is a bit of a trap,
because you're either going to end up
siding with Ted Cruz or Tucker Carlson,
which is a real "Sophie's Choice",
if she hated both her kids.
After that interview, Cruz posted
this cartoon on social media
of Tucker asking Luke Skywalker
what the population
of the Death Star is.
And I know this isn't his point,
but it's not actually a bad question
for Luke to have reckoned with,
all things considered.
How many widows
are you comfortable making
with your little trick shot, farm boy?
Trump himself actually posted,
"Somebody please explain to kooky
Tucker Carlson that," comma,
quotation mark, space, "Iran
cannot have a nuclear weapon!"
end quotation mark.
Despite his own director of national
intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard,
saying in March that Iran is not
building a nuclear weapon,
a finding U.S. intelligence officials
reiterated to reporters just this week.
And it's worth considering
what direct U.S. involvement
would actually mean here.
The U.S. is apparently considering
dropping a "bunker buster" bomb
on Fordo,
Iran's most fortified nuclear facility,
which is built
deep inside a mountain.
The weapon we're considering
is 30.000 pounds and 20 feet long,
and has never been used
in combat before.
It's called
a "Massive Ordnance Penetrator",
which is not only a way too
sexual-sounding name for a bomb,
it also abbreviates to MOP.
And I don't love that you could
potentially start World War III
by dropping a MOP.
Crucially,
Israel doesn't have that bomb,
or indeed,
the aircraft necessary to deploy it,
so we'd have to, which would obviously
be a direct military intervention.
And it's not like we can just leave
the bomb on the curb in Tel Aviv
with a little sticky note that says,
"Still works, no bedbugs."
And as for what this
would actually accomplish,
some experts suggest
a successful attack
would simply set Iran's nuclear
program back by a year or two.
Which is pretty galling,
given Trump arguably got us
into this situation in the first place,
after abandoning
the Iran nuclear deal back in 2018.
America getting directly involved here
would massively escalate things,
with no guarantee regarding
what the outcome would be.
And yet, we're right on the edge
of doing exactly that.
As for whether Trump
actually calls a strike,
it seems that nobody,
including him, has any real idea.
You don't know that I'm gonna
even do it. You don't know.
I may do it, I may not do it. I mean,
nobody knows what I'm gonna do.
I will say,
he's not technically wrong there.
The problem is
that when Trump says that,
he thinks it makes him
sound like a chess master,
when in reality it makes him
sound like a cow flying a plane.
Nobody knows
what I'm gonna do,
but it's reasonable to assume
it's not gonna end great!
So, in the meantime,
we're in limbo.
We're taping this on Saturday,
so by the time this airs,
who knows what could've happened?
Maybe the situation's unchanged.
Maybe Trump already
dropped the MOP.
Maybe Ted Cruz spent
the last few days reading
"A History of Iran: Empire of the Mind"
just to spite Tucker Carlson,
but fell in love with the country's
rich cultural tapestry
and decided to move to Tehran.
Who really knows?
But right now,
I do know three things for sure:
this situation is very worrying,
we don't want to be dragged into
yet another war in the Middle East,
and for the record, if there is ever
an explosion, a fire drill,
or even a medium-sized mouse
anywhere near this desk,
unlike this woman,
I am fucking out of here!
And now, this.
And Now: Local News Celebrates
National Eat Your Vegetables Day.
Sorry, it's what? Our national day
is the National Vegetables Day?
Yeah,
National Eat Your Vegetables Day.
Yeah, kids.
Won't be partaking,
but kids should definitely.
Absolutely.
So, we are asking you this morning
in our Hometown Hellos
what your favorite veggies are.
I'm gonna have to go with asparagus,
especially with a steak,
mashed potatoes, stuff like that.
You really cannot go wrong
if you've ever had asparagus.
You said you've never
had asparagus.
- Never had it, but willing to try it.
- I think you'll like it.
And David Blakeman says
good morning from Leaf
and that his wife, Bebe,
loves butter beans.
So, he says that they're going
to have butter beans in heaven
so she better like them.
They're gonna be in heaven.
You definitely
better like them there.
I've gotten to the point now,
when I see a vegetable
I don't really care for,
I'll eat it.
- Really?
Just trying to broaden your palette.
I've just decided,
you know what, it doesn't matter.
Says good morning from Bay St. Louis
and that he likes bacon.
Not quite a vegetable,
but I like the spirit.
Moving on. Our main story tonight
concerns the internet.
It gave us unprecedented access to
the entirety of human knowledge,
and more recently,
this heartwarming video
of a single cat raising his son alone,
that takes, I'm gonna warn you,
a very dark turn.
Yeah, I know!
The CGI Garfield movie goes so much
harder than you remember.
The only thing more upsetting
than that video
is that one of the top comments
on it is someone asking,
"Is this real?"
And if you wrote that,
lean in close.
Everyone else just please
cover your ears real quick,
because this next part is just
between me and them, okay?
Yes. Those are real cats.
They're my cats, in fact.
I know you're thinking,
"Why are they wearing clothes?"
It's because I taught them shame.
Now, I'm about to lie to everyone else
and say they're not real, but you
and I will always know the truth.
Okay? Okay.
So, clearly they're not real.
But another comment
under that video simply says,
"Why did I watch this and why does
this have almost 16 million likes?"
And that's actually what we're going
to be talking about tonight.
Because that video
was made with AI.
It's one of dozens of similar
videos by the same creator.
And if you've been seeing
more stuff like that lately,
it's because the spread
of AI generation tools
has made it very easy to mass-produce
and flood social media sites
with cheap, professional-looking,
often deeply weird content.
There's even a name for it: AI slop.
And it can come in lots of forms.
It can be news articles,
or music on Spotify,
but you've probably encountered it
the most in weird images
and videos that have begun
to dominate everyone's feeds,
whether it's images
of a Jesus made out of shrimp,
or videos like Barron Trump wowing
the judges on "America's Got Talent"
while his dad plays backup piano,
a pug raising a baby
on a desert island,
or Pope Francis taking a selfie with
Jesus while flying through heaven.
And my favorite part there
is that AI somehow chose
to give Jesus a watch.
And I love the idea
that every once in a while,
Jesus in heaven looks down
at his watch and goes,
"Shit, it's already 4:00 PM?
I'm late to go flying"
"with one of the three dead popes
that actually made it up here!"
Slop can be incredibly popular.
This AI soup recipe
was the seventh most viewed post
on Facebook at the end of last year.
And at another point,
three of the top 20 most seen
posts there were AI-generated,
including this one of a giant fan bed,
which had 35 million views.
And at the start of this year,
this image of a horse made out of bread
got nearly 50 million
views on Facebook,
and was even "loved"
by Mark Zuckerberg.
AI slop is basically
the newest iteration of spam.
As the CEO of one AI content
detection platform put it,
"Not all AI content is spam, but
right now all spam is AI content."
And it's becoming
a problem on multiple levels.
For a start,
websites that were previously useful
are now becoming much less so,
as this woman makes clear.
Pinterest is becoming unusable,
and I just need to talk about it.
This is me just searching "garden",
and almost everything is AI-generated.
Like, what is that cat?
I keep scrolling,
and, like,
you literally click on anything,
and it's like, this is so obviously AI,
and it's so frustrating.
I want actual images.
Pinterest used to be my favorite app
and a place for people
to share pictures they've taken,
and for other people
to be inspired by those pictures.
But now, it is just exhausting
and gives me a headache
every time I try to use it.
I know she might seem calm there,
but for a Pinterest user,
that is white-hot rage.
She is seconds away from
knitting a full-blown manifesto.
But it's not just Pinterest.
There's now a booming market
of AI-generated videos about
completely fictitious news stories,
like this one, titled "Judge Fines
Karoline Leavitt for Wearing a Cross",
misspelled,"Only to Discover
She's a Legal Genius."
It is 37 minutes long,
has over a million views,
and here's just a taste
of the court proceedings.
"That cross", Hargrove pointed at her
neck, his tone rigid.
"It doesn't belong here.
The courtroom is a neutral place,"
"not somewhere to display faith."
She realized instantly
Hargrove wasn't just targeting her,
but the cross itself,
a symbol he seemed to despise.
Yeah, the news!
You know how the news is.
Hal9000's voice, comic book font,
and, of course,
third-person omniscient narration.
That channel has fake confrontations
that follow a similar formula,
like "Karoline Leavitt
Bankrupts 'The View'",
"Brad Pitt Storms Off After Heated
Clash with Karoline Leavitt,"
"Karoline Leavitt
Mocked by Famous Pianist"
"Then She Played
and Silenced the World",
and my personal favorite,
"Pope Leo XIV Orders Karoline Leavitt
to 'Take Off the Cross.'"
Which makes sense, doesn't it?
You can't wear that in here, Karoline!
This is the fucking Vatican!
Have some respect!
The problem is, the comments
section under that courtroom video
is filled with people who clearly have
no idea that it isn't real,
saying things like, "What a tremendous
victory for Christians everywhere",
"Proud of you Karoline, for putting
that judge in his place"
and "Intelligence for once, she is
a force to be reckoned with."
And when one commenter
points out that the video is fake,
a reply says, "No, it happened,
but it was Pam Bondi."
"I just watched a YouTube video."
Because, of course, there are also
multiple slop videos out there
where the exact same thing
happens to Pam Bondi.
If that's starting to give you an uneasy
feeling in your stomach right now,
get used to it, because it seems
extremely likely
that we're going to be drowning in
this shit for the foreseeable future.
So, given that, tonight,
let's talk about AI slop:
what it is, where it comes
from, and the harm it can do.
And before we take all of the
fun out of it, I'll acknowledge:
some AI-generated content
can be enjoyable.
Exhibit A:
"Cat-Chester by the Sea."
Which makes sense, the whole
point is to grab your attention.
That is why you'll see visually
arresting stuff,
like videos of incredibly buff babies,
or cute dogs working human jobs,
or people transforming
into fruits and vegetables.
That is actually
a weirdly common trend,
and I think my favorite version
of it might be this.
He's back!
Okay,
I have so many questions there,
from why Cabbage Hulk
kept his human hands,
to why he tore his own head off
to reveal a different kind of cabbage.
But the one thing
I know for sure is,
he better stay the fuck away
from my wife. Stay away from her!
Now, as for AI music,
at first,
it can sound pretty close
to the real thing,
like this country song, whose lyrics
are only about 15 degrees off.
This wicked dust,
it'll drag you down,
Choke your soul,
bury your crown.
In the shadows,
where nightmares rust,
can't escape the grip
of this wicked dust.
Cool.
That is from a band
called The Devil Inside,
and one good clue
their music is AI-generated
is that they've put out over
10 albums in the past two years.
Other clues include
that they complain about "wicked dust"
twice in the same chorus,
and two of their top five songs
on Spotify are also dust-related,
which makes this feel
less like a "dark country" band
and more a secret ad
for Swiffer.
It is now incredibly easy
to create slop like that.
Which, as this CEO of
an AI music generator points out,
is one of its key selling points.
It's not really enjoyable
to make music now.
- Why do you say that?
It takes a lot of time.
It takes a lot of practice.
You need to get really good
at an instrument
or really good
at a piece of production software.
I think the majority of people
don't enjoy the majority of the time
they spend making music.
Okay, first,
and this is a hot take,
I think a lot of people might
actually enjoy making music.
It's probably
why they were doing it
for the 40.000 years
of human history prior to AI.
But if that is not you,
and you would rather make music
by simply pressing a button,
then good news:
you don't need AI,
there are already a wide variety
of toys made for babies just like you.
But he is right that AI tools
have now reduced
the barrier of entry to people
who want to produce writing,
images, or music
that can seem plausibly professional.
And even big platforms
are now getting in on this.
Here's Mark Zuckerberg
proudly unveiling a new suite
of AI tools for Meta users.
We call it Emu,
for "expressive media universe",
continuing with our animal theme.
And just
take a look at these images.
Because today, we're starting
to roll out a bunch of products
with this in it.
They're high-quality, photorealistic.
But one of the coolest things
is that Emu generates them fast.
First, that is the least charismatic
product demo I've ever seen.
You think Steve Jobs
would be caught dead
uttering a dud phrase like
"continuing with our animal theme?"
He'd sooner acknowledge
his own children.
But Zuckerberg's obviously trying
to make sure Meta capitalizes
on the popularity of AI by keeping it
within their ecosystem.
He's said that adding
AI images to user feeds
is the next "logical jump"
for Facebook and Instagram.
They've even tweaked
their algorithm
so that more than a third of what
people see on their Facebook feed
now comes
from accounts they don't follow.
That's how slop sneaks in
without your permission.
So, it seems to be good business
for them.
But what's in it
for the people that produce it?
Well, platforms like Meta,
Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok
now have monetization programs,
where they make direct payments
to people who successfully go viral.
And there's now a whole industry
of AI slop gurus
offering to sell you their secrets
of how to make profitable slop
for a small fee.
Remember that cat video from before?
Here's its creator trying
to sell you a training course.
Do you want to go viral and
make the same videos as I do?
It's really simple.
Click the link in my bio
and I'll guide you
step by step on how to do it.
That class costs 17.99 and will
supposedly "unlock the secrets"
"to crafting viral cat AI videos
that capture hearts on TikTok."
And you know who should be
pissed off about that
more than anyone else?
Cats.
They've been going viral
since the dawn of the internet,
and now along comes this
sombrero-wearing motherfucker,
who isn't even a real cat,
by the way,
trying to cut them out
of the profits.
Cats would be so mad about this
if they ever gave a single shit
about anything humans do.
Now, the good news is,
you don't need to give your credit
card number to an AI cat,
because I'll give you the three
basic steps for free.
It's pretty simple.
Step one:
you make a page on a social
media app and build a following.
While most platforms require
a certain threshold of followers
or engagement
before they'll pay you,
you can easily get around that
by buying a pre-existing account
like this one, that already
has thousands of followers.
Then comes step two:
create and post as much
engagement-bait slop as possible.
Here is a video by another slop guru,
showing you just how quickly
that can be done.
So, what we're gonna do,
we're going to type in
"home decor inspiration Pinterest".
Why? Why Pinterest?
Because Pinterest
is a heavy image-based platform.
And what you're gonna find
as we scroll through these,
probably 80% of these
images are AI-generated now.
What's so cool is that we can come
to this free tool right here,
Ideogram, and ask it,
"Create a beautiful bedroom design"
"with black curtains
and make it hyper-realistic."
You're gonna find that the images
just rendered.
And right off the bat, for free,
we have four images
that could do really well.
Okay, putting aside those photos
look like a suicidal West Elm,
that is why Pinterest
is drowning in AI now,
and why users like this woman
are swearing vengeance
with their indoor voice.
And yet, the maker of that video
is willing to take 379 dollars from you
to teach you more.
But it's not just Pinterest photos.
Here's another guru explaining how
you can buy his proprietary AI tool
to make literally
every part of a viral video.
Let's, for example,
do a funny texting story,
and then let's go down here
and select "gameplay video".
And let's do Subway Surfers for
the background of this one.
Click "generate". Just like that,
our next video is done.
Let's take a look
at what it looks like.
Ever send a text
that completely backfired?
Let me tell you about my friend Jake.
One day,
he meant to text his girlfriend,
"Can't wait to see you tonight",
but instead
he accidentally sent it to his boss.
His boss replied,
"I hope this isn't about work."
Panicking,
As you can see, it's got a great
original story that could go viral
on social media on any
of those short-form platforms.
And you can make hundreds
of these every single month
and all you need
is a couple to take off
to potentially make a real
business out of even doing this.
Yeah, all he did
was type "funny texting story"
and AI vomited out the rest.
Although, to be fair,
I don't know if you can call
"accidentally sending a text"
a "great original story",
as it's one of the four
basic plots of any sitcom,
along with "accidentally scheduled
two dates at the same time",
"roommates divide
the apartment in half with tape"
and "Blues Travelers' bus broke down
and now they're comin' to dinner!"
Still, as that leather-clad
child explained,
AI slop is ultimately a volume game,
like any form of spam.
Slop creators will often jump
on a trend that feels
like it's got any kind of traction.
So, if one type of image
or video goes viral,
they'll churn out
hundreds of copycats.
That's why, suddenly,
you might start seeing a ton of old
people posing with birthday cakes.
In that one, it's apparently
the 100th birthday
of a woman named "Dutndouy".
Similarly, you may've seen images
of soldiers holding up signs
about how it's their birthday,
or people posing next to wood
carvings of animals
with captions like,
"Made it with my own hands."
But interestingly, when internet
sleuths traced this AI image,
which has nearly a million likes,
back to what seems to be
its original source,
it turned out to be this real image
of an actual wood carving
created by an artist
named Michael Jones.
He's apparently based in England
and does some amazing work.
Look at this carving of a horse,
or this one
of whatever the fuck that is.
Those are real sculptures
he made with a fucking chainsaw.
And yet, his work has been stolen
and turned into endless variations.
And he himself has said getting
ripped off by slop
is a huge issue for him
and other carvers all over the world
who are sadly missing out on the
rightful credit exposure to their work,
which makes sense.
And it is a good reminder
that AI generators rip off the work
of actual artists
without compensating them.
But assuming that you,
as a slop creator,
don't give a shit about that,
you can simply move on to step three:
getting paid.
And there are a couple
of ways to do this,
from being paid directly by
the platform, like I mentioned earlier,
to other revenue streams,
based around affiliate marketing,
or linking to items for sale online.
For instance, this slop account
on Instagram
features a variety of AI videos,
from world leaders
walking the catwalk as babies,
to videos of animals
attacking each other,
like this elephant absolutely
going to town on an alligator.
Now,
if you go to the bio on that page,
you'll see it links to this site
selling all sorts of random products
that they'll get a commission from
if you buy them,
from snap-on teeth veneers, to this
weird duck-shaped pillow for infants
which brags
that it's somehow based
in "research and development
for stunned babies",
to this, quote,
"Naughty Boy Creative Table Lamp",
whose switch is his tiny dick.
And look, it is wedding season,
and if you want to go off-registry,
that is all the way off.
Now, I'm guessing you can't make
a ton of money off that.
And honestly, you're unlikely to make
a ton from the platforms, either.
Because for all the talk of riches
on those slop gurus' videos,
the money involved here
can be relatively small.
On Meta, for instance, one reporter
found that payments for single images
could vary
from just a few cents per photo
to hundreds of dollars
if it goes megaviral.
And while that clearly
isn't enough to live on,
it can be more appealing
if you live in a country
where that kind
of money goes further.
That is why many slop pages now
operate from places like India,
Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia
and Pakistan.
But there are some real downsides
to the unchecked growth of all of this.
Some of which are, admittedly,
pretty minor,
like the fact that lots of us are now
having to explain to our parents
that the unbelievable thing that they
saw on Facebook is not real.
Look at this owl! He's beautiful!
It's a Norwegian giant owl!
- In Norway!
- Mother.
Dude, that's not a real cat.
Can you see that?
Do you see how, like, soft it is?
What do you mean
it's not a real cat?
- That is ridiculously cute.
- Mom.
- How is that real?
- Mom, that's AI.
- Is it?
- That's fake.
- No fuckin' way.
- That's not real.
The motherfuckers!
Yeah, the motherfuckers, indeed.
And real quick,
for anyone watching this,
here's a pretty good rule of thumb:
if you see an animal
that's so cute it defies reality,
and it is not Moo Deng,
odds are it's AI.
But we've clearly got bigger problems
than people being duped
by non-existent animals.
There's an environmental impact
from the energy and resources
consumed
in producing all of this shit.
And then there's the fact
some slopmakers specialize
in videos that claim
to depict real-world calamities,
which can lead to the spread
of worrying misinformation like this.
These explosions are fake, but
they've racked up millions of views.
They've already been shared
across social media,
including this claim
that the explosions are in Ukraine.
Before this account disappeared,
a reverse image search
could take you back to the creator
with more videos.
And they all have similar issues.
See how huge this white car looks?
And also,
how are these homes still standing
with a gigantic fireball
behind them?
And the audio track is the same
in every vid.
So, why make content like this?
This creator used to make videos
about tornadoes, and before that,
about planes on fire,
possibly experimenting
in the hopes of going viral.
Come on!
Air travel is scary enough now
without people
making up new disasters.
It's why you have to be careful
and look for clues,
like how the side of that plane says
nonsense like "frcananc-faia"
and not something much more
believable like "Boeing".
The thing is, sometimes,
fake videos about news stories
can really catch on.
During the L.A. fires,
a lot of people were initially fooled
by photos and videos like this one of
the Hollywood sign engulfed in flames.
That was pretty unnerving
to L.A. residents,
like these two men who went
to check it out in person.
When we saw the posts on Instagram,
we were devastated.
We lived here all our lives,
and when we saw that
on Instagram it broke our hearts,
so we wanted to
come and see firsthand.
- There's no fires.
- No fires and they're faking it.
You know, when people are
actually losing their houses.
You guys
should help each other out,
instead of trying to create false
narratives and trying to promote BS.
He's right.
You shouldn't be faking calamities,
if for no other reason than
you could make those two so worried
they trek up to the Hollywood sign,
a hike that's a mixed bag
even when it isn't on fire,
since it has online reviews like,
"Watch out for all the horse poop",
"There was a lot
of horse poop on the floor",
"This trail stinks!
Because of all the horse poo"
and my personal favorite,
"You should never hike
this trail during a windstorm."
"I was being hit by flying
bits of dried horse poop"
"for about three-quarters of a mile,
before deciding to turn back."
"It was something. At this point,
I decided to abort my hike,"
"and ran back to my car."
"I had bits of dried horse poop
stuck in my hair and my sweater!"
"I had a good laugh about it after,
but listen to me, children:"
"never hike this trail if it gets too
windy. You have been warned!"
And it's not just the fires.
Right now, the Israel-Iran conflict
has unleashed
a wave of AI disinformation,
with one expert saying
it's "the first time we've seen"
"generative AI be used
at scale during a conflict."
And during last year's flooding
in North Carolina,
a bunch of fake images
started circulating online,
which quickly became a problem
for first responders.
We saw a flood of images
on social media depicting,
and here they are
on your screen right now,
depicting what appear to be
victims in the flood.
And what happened was the relief
workers also who use social media
to, for example, find areas where,
people might need rescue,
like this person rescuing a dog
or what looked to be,
you know, a toddler being rescued.
They use social media just like us
to look for areas that need help.
And so,
this was creating a lot of noise,
and it was making it more
difficult for them to act quickly.
Yeah,
you don't want emergency personnel
allocating resources
based on fake information.
Although, I will say,
if medics are gonna rush to
the scene of an AI-generated video,
for god's sake,
make it this one.
Somebody send an ambulance
to that poor cabbage man!
He just tore the top half
of his purple head off!
He cannot be okay!
You may remember that those images
were also used by Republicans
as evidence that President Biden
was failing to deal with the emergency.
One member
of the Republican National Committee
actually posted that photo
of the girl with a puppy, captioned,
"This picture has been seared
into my mind. My heart hurts."
But even after being told it was fake,
she refused to take it down,
writing, "I don't know where
this photo came from"
"and honestly, it doesn't matter."
"It is emblematic of the trauma
and pain people are living through."
And it's pretty fucking galling
for the same people who spent the past
decade screaming "fake news"
at any headline they didn't like,
to be confronted
with actual fake news
and suddenly
be extremely open to it.
You can't just believe something
because you saw it in a picture.
Otherwise, our graphics team
could make you believe
any sad situation, like Oscar
the Grouch is in the Illuminati,
or that Bigfoot is having trouble
selling his feet pics online.
Actually, that is compelling.
I don't care where it came from.
But it's seared into my heart.
Now, I will say, at least when
it came to last year's elections,
many experts agree that AI's negative
impacts were far less extreme
than originally feared.
And it is good that large groups
of people weren't fooled
into thinking that Kamala Harris
wore a communist uniform,
or that Trump
was violently arrested,
or that Biden put on a Trump hat,
except, wait, that last one was
actually real. He really did that.
Two months before Election Day.
How on Earth did Democrats lose?
But even if people treated fake images
last year with skepticism,
there are two catches.
First, AI is already significantly
better now than it was then,
so it may be easier to fool them
going forward.
And second, the very fact people
doubted what they saw on the internet
actually comes
with a bit of a downside,
as this disinformation researcher
explains.
Because people know that
something might be a deepfake,
they actually then stop believing
in real things that did happen.
And they kind of discount
a true story
because they're able
to tell themselves,
"I think that might be a deepfake,
actually."
Right. It's not just that
we can get fooled by fake stuff.
It's that the very existence of it then
empowers bad actors
to dismiss real videos
and images as fake.
It's an idea called the "liar's
dividend", which I know sounds
like an airport spy thriller
James Patterson shit out in a weekend.
But it is a real problem.
And you don't have to look far
to see people doing this.
A lawyer for one
of the January 6th defendants
argued that the government's
evidence was deepfaked,
which is an extremely funny thing
to say about a coup attempt
that was livestreamed.
And just two weeks ago, when
Gavin Newsom posted this real photo
of soldiers deployed to L.A.
sleeping on the floor,
the conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer
retweeted a claim
that it was fake, saying,
"Looks like Gavin Newsom used an
AI photo to smear President Trump."
And, of course,
Trump's done this too.
He falsely claimed photos
of Kamala Harris
greeting a large crowd
were AI-generated,
and when Democrats cut together
video of him having "old man" moments
he blamed that on AI as well,
saying,
"Artificial intelligence was used by
them against me in their videos of me."
Which actually might be the most
AI-generated sounding sentence
in this entire piece.
So, to summarize, AI slop can be
somewhat lucrative for its creators,
massively lucrative for the platforms
that use it to drive engagement,
and worryingly corrosive to the general
concept of objective reality.
And now I've shown you
a simple three-step process
on how to make it.
But, you know, please don't.
Especially given I just saved you
from paying 17.99 to a cat
in a sombrero.
So, what can we do?
Well, the truth is, not a lot.
Some platforms
have started labeling AI content,
but even those attempts
have been lackluster.
Meta, for instance,
recently started requiring an AI label
when content is realistic,
but notably, that only applies
to audio and video, not to images.
And if creators don't actively
add those labels,
it can be hard
for a platform to detect AI,
as it's getting increasingly hard
to spot.
On an individual level, if you're
sick of all the slop in your feed,
you can block accounts that post it,
or click "not interested",
which might reduce the amount
of it that you see.
But that's not gonna stop it all.
And look, I'm not saying some
of this stuff isn't fun to watch.
What I am saying is, some of
it's potentially very dangerous,
and even when it isn't,
the technology that makes it possible
only works because it trains
on the work of actual artists.
So, any enjoyment you might
get from weird, funny AI slop
tends to be undercut when you know
that someone's hard work was stolen
in order to create it.
So, I don't have a big fix for all
of this, or, indeed, any of it.
What I do have, though,
is a petty way to respond.
Because perhaps one small way
to get back
at all the AI slop ripping off artists
would be to create real art
by ripping off AI slop.
So, please, come with me.
Come with me.
Because we managed to track down
Michael Jones, the chainsaw artist,
and we commissioned
a special piece from him,
ripping off
what I consider to be
the finest, most inexplicable piece
of slop produced to date.
So, ladies and gentlemen,
I proudly present:
from the chainsaw
of Michael Jones,
a carved manifestation
of the cabbage hunk!
Look at him, in all his muscular
cabbage glory!
Look at the details there!
This thing is an absolute masterpiece!
And seeing this,
doesn't it make you want to thank
the real artist who made it?
Well, I've got some great
news for you, you can do that,
'cause we flew him here, too!
Michael is here!
Michael Jones, everyone!
Michael Jones!
Thanks so much, mate. Fantastic.
What a fun way to celebrate
the destruction of our shared,
objective reality!
We are fucked!
That is our show, thank you
so much for watching.
We'll see you next week, good night!
Michael Jones!