I’ve talked in length about the ethical quandaries surrounding generative AI, from the industrial-scale theft of intellectual property to the ways it harms both the natural as well as digital environments due to its extractive nature. But I also want to talk about the aesthetics of the slop output we have to contend with now on a regular basis, and I don’t just mean the political side of it—I and many others have been sounding the alarm that genAI lines right up with aesthetics of fascism. Rather, I want to explore the relationship between the slop machines and true art forms, and why we just aren’t seeing anything meaningful and lasting being produced using these problematic technologies.

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Links

• NEW! Human Web Collective: a forum for the AI-Free movement
• A Tale of Two Cyberspaces
• “100% of the music I love listening to was produced without the aid of slop machines”
• 'AI slop': Emily Portman and musicians on the mystery of fraudsters releasing songs in their name
• Embrace Generative Art, Reject Regurgitated Slop (podcast)
• A Photo with Paint FX is Not a Painting, But It Could Be Something Else
• 404 Media Podcast: Shrimp Jesus
• The AI vibe shift is upon us (CNN Business)
• Kat Tenbarge: Sam Altman's Dyson Sphere 😳
• Cat soap operas and babies trapped in space: the ‘AI slop’ taking over YouTube