People seem to forget how different the internet was just a few years ago.
You could blow up with videos of almost anything, and years before this “YouTuber frenzy,” you could rank on Google with almost any article, if you knew what buttons to push.
The era of AI and “augmented content” is way different. We’re just starting to experiment with LLMs and “AI creation tools” and it’s clear that, while the operative costs seem to be going down for most of the utilitarian content, AI is a major driving force behind the increasing costs of making quality, human-readable content.
And why would that be any different? Well, for once, it takes seconds to write “the perfect email,” “the highest-converting landing page copy” or the “most engaging social media post,” do the AI influencers say.
The harsh reality is that the majority of content writers are scrambling to find meaningful writing jobs, and the ones occupying the few vacancies left are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to stand out in an era full of “AI slop.” (In case you’re not familiar with the term, AI slop simply refers to low-quality media.)
Have humans lost their innate need for stories? The growing divide within society and the proliferation of misinformation would seem to suggest the opposite. If anything, people are starving for valuable content that nurtures their lives: that informs them and does not obfuscate the truth; that entertains them without compromising their sense of self; that teaches them without eroding their sense of wonder. Where are these stories going?
They’re being pushed to specialized magazines and alternative news outlets. Meanwhile the mainstream media is bowing down to “The Algorithms”: First, it was the Googles, then the Amazons, then the Reddits, and now it’s the OpenAIs of the net.
Why should people struggle to read unbiased news on the average newspaper, relevant information on the average website’s blog, and smart entertainment on the average platform?
If AI really is eating the world, we should at least make sure it’s not leaving useless crumbs to us poor humans. After all, we’re not just taking advantage of these novel tools, we’re setting a precedent for the future. A future that may be endlessly enriched by the qualities of AI-led innovations, or buried by our desire for just slightly better productivity, without realizing we were building a world led by AIs for machines all along.
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