AI Slop: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

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

going to warn you, a very dark turn.

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

meow meow meow meow meow meow

meow meow.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

Yeah, I know. The CGI Garfield's 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 cuz the next part is

just between me and them. Okay.

Yes, those those are real cats. They're

they're my cats, in fact. And 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 that 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 Baron 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.

He goes, "Shit, it's already 400 p.m.

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 slot 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 bear, 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 finds

Caroline Levit 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 Harrove wasn't just targeting

her, but the cross itself, a symbol he

seemed to despise. Yeah, the news. You

know how the news is. How 9000's voice,

comic book font, and of course, third

person omnisient narration. That channel

has a lot of fake confrontations that

follow a similar formula. like Caroline

Levit bankrupts the view. Brad Pitt

storms off after heated clash with

Caroline Levit. Caroline Levit mocked by

famous pionist. Then she played and

silenced the world. And my personal

favorite, Pope Leo I 14th orders

Caroline Levit to take off the cross.

Which makes sense, doesn't it? You can't

wear that in here, Caroline. This is the

Vatican. Have some respect.

The problem is the comment section under

that courtroom video is filled with

people who clearly have absolutely no

idea that it isn't real. Saying things

like, "What a tremendous victory for

Christians everywhere. Proud of you

Caroline 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 slot videos out there

where the exact same thing happens to

Pam Bondi. And 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 ship

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. Before we take all of

the fun out of it, I'll acknowledge some

AI generated content can be enjoyable.

Exhibit A, Catchester 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.

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

Okay, I have so many questions there

from why Cabbage Hulk kept his human

hands to why he suddenly 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 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° offices.

[Music]

Cool.

[Music]

That is from a band called The Devil

Inside. And one good clue their music is

AI generated is that they 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 like a secret ad for