[sph]

> There is no insight to be gleamed.

AI-generated articles are the intellectual equivalent of empty calories.

I have just spent the last 10 minutes trying to figure out why someone decided to buy imgui.org, name-squatting an actual project, just to put a slop website on it mildly referencing the original project. It's not even trying to scam you.

I keep wondering whether these people that keep polluting the internet with their insightless slop even possess self-awareness. What motivates them to expend money and effort to contribute nothing to the world? Are they another example of a philosophical zombie?

[goatherders]

The answer is in your question. "Empty calories" is a multi trillion dollar business in the food world. It will be the same in the digital world.

[sph]

McDonalds serves a need: human tend to get hungry.

What need does filling the Internet with AI-generated slop serve? No one is ever going to read those. As I've shown, sometimes they're not even selling anything.

The multi-trillion dollar business is for hyperscalers, but I don't get what slop creators get out of this. What are they spending money for?

[seba_dos1]

> What are they spending money for?

To prepare for the future use of these resources.

[inglor_cz]

I wouldn't underestimate the market for AI videos. From funny to hyperpolitical/propagandist.

One of the most globally recognized attribute of the recent US-Iranian war was the Lego cartoons. This sort of content will be soon churned out by everyone.

[watwut]

The propaganda lego cartoons I have seen were not AI slop. They were also perfectly doable in a traditional studio. The lyrics had meaning - insulting but a real one. They were not constrained to truth, but that seemed like normal propaganda lying rather then hallucinations. The lying was very purposeful.

[soco]

I cannot tell what about domain squatting, but I've seen a "why" in seemingly innocuous Facebook groups about baking or such, which at the right time slowly transitioned to fake AI pictures and stories, and then to straight-out political propaganda. I'm talking Eastern Europe and russian "special operation" support propaganda. But a slop website won't have enough traffic to be worth such an action, so no idea.