Yup.
Also, if you use GenAI for one part of your work, people will assume you used it for the whole thing. It cheapens all your work if any part of it is GenAI.
(Plus of course GenAI is innately immoral due to its environmental, social and political impacts.)
@FediThing yeah, it is a trust killer for me
@limebar @FediThing Yep, same here. When I see someone saying their music is all their own work but they've illustrated it with AI slop, I have a really hard time believing they didn't also use it as part of making their music.
That stuff is designed to be addictive and to manipulate feelings of shame and inadequacy in ways that incentivize misrepresenting the output.
@dalias @limebar @FediThing Personally even if I believed them the slop bits still spoil the whole thing. Proper fly in the ointment situation always. Why would I care about something authored by someone who's not bothered by all the massive issues around "AI", theirs will be a voice of mediocrity at best.
@dalias @limebar @FediThing I sort of can believe them, because despite everything, I try to see the good in people... but it still spoils the thing to the point I'm not really interested anymore.
@ozzelot @dalias @limebar @FediThing
Seeing the good in people is very underrated and science tells us it is a grave mistake also.
@henriksundstrom
> Seeing the good in people is very underrated and science tells us it is a grave mistake
... not to?
Aug 9, 2026, 4:43 AM@ophis
So ... Seeing the good in people is very underrated and history tells us it is a grave mistake? Which history and how?
@ozzelot@mstdn.social @dalias@hachyderm.io @limebar@mastodon.social @FediThing@social.chinwag.org IDK, I find the average person to be stupid and lazy, if not evil too. But then again, I live in Las Vegas, Sin City.
@dalias @limebar @FediThing Same.
AI 'art' is used primarily by people who lack the skill and creativity to create things themselves.
Genuine artists would rather put out an imperfect, messy, but personal creation than rely on a crutch used by unskilled, uncreative people.
When I see an artist manufacturing AI slop, it is a tacit acknowledgement of a lack of skill and lack of creativity, and it's justifiable to question everything they make if they're compromising themselves like that.
@clonedhuman @limebar @FediThing I don't see it as a matter of skill at all. It's a matter of lacking the *will* or the *desire* to make art.
Slopping it together reflects something more like a desire for the thing to 'just exist'.
Framing it as a lack of skill drives people who aren't confident in their own skills not to do art but instead to ask the slop machine to do it for them, which is exactly the opposite of what we want, and is what the slop-peddlers are counting on happening to would-be artists.
@dalias @limebar @FediThing
I think we're sorta talking about the same thing here? Part of being creative is having the will to develop skill. Take playing guitar--it's difficult, your fingers hurt, and you can hear things you want to play but can't (yet); it can take years.
But, I see your point beyond that--many punk bands made great songs despite little skill. They TRIED though--they had the WILL without having the SKILL (yet). They wanted to create.
AI lets people skip the 'trying' part.
@FediThing This is exactly why I'm immediately unsubscribing from channels that start using YouTube's AI thumbnail generator. Okay cool. How long before the script is AI slop? How long before instead of filming b-roll or buying from stock footage sellers, they just AI slop that? Time to get out at the first sign of rot.
@mjc0961 @FediThing is that voluntary or is there any chance Google opts videos into it without the creator's consent?
I think it's voluntary as @vwestlife did a thread about it being a bad idea recently.
@FediThing @0x2ba22e11 @mjc0961 @vwestlife
It's voluntary with YT videos, and some YT creators I follow (who usually make their own thumbnails) have tried it, for one video (with backlash).
YT Studio was already allowing A/B testing of 2 thumbnails if you supply 2, prior to the slop thumbnail generator.
@TechTangents posted examples of it getting thumbnails very very wrong (without using any in a video).
FranLab (not on Fedi) made a video about it. She found the process very slow and tedious.
@0x2ba22e11 @mjc0961 @FediThing You have to manually opt-in to that AFAIK. As it stands, YouTube still automatically grabs a random frame from the video if you don't manually upload/choose your own thumbnail when uploading the video. Though either way, it doesn't stop people from just using ChatGPT or whatever to generate the AI thumbnails instead.
@Quinn9282 @mjc0961 @FediThing I'm just thinking I'd double check every time before passing judgement because I would be surprised if Google did not turn it on silently without consent in future.
@Quinn9282 Yeah it really doesn't matter if it's YouTube's tool or ChatGPT or whatever. If it's blatant AI slop, I'm pressing unsubscribe and/or don't recommend channel. It's an obvious sign of rot, if they're willing to hand over one part of the creative process, how many more will they hand over in the future? Trust is completely broken.
@Quinn9282 Also it seems pretty obvious that it's opt in, because there isn't a massive outcry about Google forcing it on people. A lot of people would be PISSED about forced slop thumbnails they didn't want, and we'd hear about it.
@mjc0961 @FediThing Most of that is YouTube making that the default and creators have to actively deselect it on each video so it's not an option in the number of thumbnails that appear to users.
Depressingly, at least two creators have said they would deselect it but the AI ones are the ones with the most clicks to their videos
@trebach Then they're still making a choice to use it and can still be ejected from my feeds.
@FediThing @limebar So much this. When searching for new music, I scroll right past anything with obviously AI generated album cover, despite the track maybe not being AI generated.
@FediThing @limebar Exactly. GenAI miniatures on YT videos make me skip them. Same on GenAI illustrations on blog posts. Better just not have them.