By the time that the BBC got around to heralding Fruit Love Island as the first viral AI-generated video series, its anonymous creator had already jacked it in.
The creator of the reality-show parody deleted their account in an apparent fit of pique just weeks after it became popular, citing frustration with the critics who had denounced the content as slop and lobbied to get it removed from TikTok and YouTube.
Given the amount of brainrot that gets circulated online unmolested, it’s safe to assume that it was not Fruit Love Island’s incoherent narrative that so animated its detractors.
A few months later, Epic Games’ CEO, Tim Sweeney, also spoke out against AI dissenters. In June, he said that disclosing the use of AI when publishing a game on Steam was like being branded with a ‘scarlet letter’. Subsequent findings by Game Oracle that AI disclosures can reduce the number of reviews a game receives by 53% indicate that he may have had a point.
And yet Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos was happy to inform investors in July that 300 titles on the streaming platform had used AI in the production process. Roblox’s decision to introduce an AI game-generation tool the same month didn’t appear to meet any hostility, either.
So, what gives? Does using AI to make content or entertainment products hurt creators or not?
The examples above suggest that it can, but only on distribution platforms (like Steam and TikTok) where it is possible for a small group of naysayers to use comments, reporting features and community dynamics to interfere with the popularity or availability of a piece of content.
These conditions are necessary because in most cases it’s only a tiny subset of people who are motivated enough to actually take action to sabotage AI content — usually because they feel that their livelihoods are being threatened in some way.
Netflix doesn’t have mechanisms that small groups can leverage in that way. Unlike TikTok and Steam, Netflix invests a lot of money in the shows and films that it hosts, which means that it’s probably always going to be reluctant to remove content at the behest of a vocal minority.
But don’t mistake the apathy of the masses towards AI for enthusiasm or acceptance. Various polls and studies have indicated that people view AI-generated content, including ads, as lower quality. More telling, though, is the tepid response by the youngest generations, who are usually the first to embrace new technologies and tend to have less regard for preserving traditional crafts.
While people are increasingly happy to use LLMs on their own terms, as a shortcut to information, they seem to have a visceral reaction to the technology when it’s used as a shortcut to their attention or their emotions. It’s possible that this will change as AI-generated content becomes more common, but it should absolutely not be assumed.
