Media365
A fake image of two impoverished children sitting in a rain-soaked road with a birthday cake pushed Théodore Cazals to challenge misleading AI content online. The picture, which showed two emaciated children with thick beards, attracted nearly one million likes and heart emojis on Facebook.The 20-year-old student from Paris began an account on X called “Insane AI Slop”, where he mocked and called out images and videos that appeared to fool viewers. People soon began sending him examples, and his account grew to more than 133,000 followers. According to the BBC, his campaign became part of a wider backlash against low-quality AI content spreading.
How the French student built an online community against fake AI images
Cazals began his campaign after seeing a Facebook image of two children who appeared emaciated and impoverished. Despite their boyish features, they had thick beards; one had no hands and only one foot. They sat in a busy road in pouring rain beside a birthday cake, while a sign asked people to like the image because it was the child’s birthday.The picture contained signs of the AI generation, yet attracted nearly one million likes and heart emojis. Cazals said the volume of absurd AI images on Facebook, and the attention they received without scrutiny, left him stunned. On X, he began highlighting and making fun of content that seemed to mislead people.
Religion and poor children became recurring themes in AI content
The examples sent to Cazals began to reveal recurring themes. Religion, military subjects and poor children doing heartwarming things were common. He said, “Kids in the third world doing impressive stuff is always popular – like a poor kid in Africa making an insane statue out of trash. I think people find it wholesome so the creators think, ‘Great, let’s make more of this stuff up”.His account grew beyond 133,000 followers, while AI-generated pictures and videos continued to appear across social media. Cazals described AI slop as fake, unconvincing videos and pictures made quickly. He later used his reach on X to alert YouTube moderators to strange AI cartoons that got huge numbers of views. He considered them disturbing and harmful, and some appeared to him to be aimed at children.
YouTube removes channels posting disturbing AI-generated cartoons
Some of the videos Cazals flagged showed scenes, including a cat story involving deadly belly parasites and a woman who ate a parasite, became a giant monster and was eventually healed by Jesus. YouTube removed the channels after finding they violated its community guidelines. The company said it aimed to connect users with high-quality content regardless of how it was made and was working to reduce the spread of low-quality AI material.The backlash has also appeared in comments beneath viral posts on platforms including TikTok, Threads, Instagram and X. In some cases, comments criticising AI content have received more likes than the videos themselves, the BBC report noted.
The impact of AI-generated content on online communities
Emily Thorson of Syracuse University said, “If a person is on a short-video platform solely for entertainment, then their standard for whether something is worthwhile is simply ‘is it entertaining?”“But if someone is on the platform to learn about a topic or to connect with community members, then they might perceive AI-generated content as more problematic.”Cazals said, “Unlike a lot of my followers, I’m not dogmatically against AI”.“I’m against the pollution online of AI slop that’s made for quick entertainment and views”.
