AI Slop Melodramas Are Taking Over X—and Their Creators Are Cashing In
Viral tales of good triumphing over evil are racking up millions of views. They’re almost entirely AI-generated clickbait.
On X, a platform driven by engagement, AI-generated short stories are gaining traction and bringing in cash for their creators. These stories, often falsely presented as genuine first-person accounts, resonate with readers due to their themes of overcoming adversity and triumphing over injustice. The author of these stories is a self-styled 21-year-old stock trader from Nigeria, who leverages AI to craft these melodramas and earn money through X's Premium User and Creative Revenue Sharing programs.
Users can join these programs by becoming Premium X users, boasting a minimum of 500 verified followers and generating over 5 million impressions in the past three months. While the program aims to promote high-quality content, it's also been exploited for posting fraudulent AI-generated material and utilizing bot-driven comments to boost engagement.
X has taken steps to combat this, including legal actions against fraudulent creators and measures to cut payments for aggregators who primarily repost news from other sources. Despite these efforts, AI-generated story slop continues to proliferate, captivating audiences with its formulaic narrative structure and predictable resolutions.
Written by urgent.news from Wired Business's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
