When microbursts of a powerful storm system rolled through the Valley this week, local and national social media was inundated with footage of downed trees and flooded streets.
But an increasing amount of the footage wasn’t real. And wasn’t watermarked as such.
This month, Show host Mark Brodie had a conversation with an Arizona-based content creator who has a massive following and a library of viral, AI-generated videos known as AI slop.
The story got a reaction from listeners. Producer Amber Victoria Singer explained why she booked the interview.
AMBER VICTORIA SINGER: On The Show, we think it’s important to speak with all sorts of people, even if we disagree with them. Something that has been particularly troubling to me recently is the rise of AI slop — easy-to-make AI generated videos designed to get attention — on social media.
So when I found out that someone who posts AI generated content on Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube to hundreds of thousands of followers is based here in Arizona, I wanted to reach out and ask: Why?
Eric, aka Infinite Unreality, told Mark Brodie that for him, it’s "really about attention."
When Mark asked Eric what he thought the future of AI looked like, he replied, "It's going to be bad … our lives are going to be completely different."
My pre-interview phone call with Eric was unsettling. And I thought his conversation with Mark was, too. So I was happy when one listener left us two voicemail messages expressing their discomfort with the segment.
"Somebody needs to explain to him that this is not a good thing for society," one caller said.
I’m glad Eric’s point of view makes our listeners feel some type of way. It bothers and scares me, too. But there’s value in listening to folks we don’t agree with.
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