[eddythompson80]

The article is covering both

> As another example, before AI what were the connotations of the sparkle emoji ? Personally, I don’t know, but now it means AI.

> For example, a lot of AI apps use tiny icons

> There are other aesthetics my brain associates with AI, like beige/cream colors, orange accents, and serif typefaces as well as whack-a-mole UI controls

Are examples of the AI outputs

> For example: streaming text

> For example, the “shimmering text”

Are examples of interacting with AI

[NicuCalcea]

I read all of these as being about interacting with AI. It says apps made by AI labs have tiny icons, not that AI-generated apps have tiny icons.

[eddythompson80]

I did wonder which one to put that under. It might be it own category of “made by AI company”, but I also think both Anthropic and OpenAI have been vocal about how their codex and Claude code is 100% AI generated

But how is AI outputing sparkle emoji or orange accents colors interacting with AI? Unless you also classify AI output as a form of interacting with AI

[NicuCalcea]

The sparkle emoji has become an indicator for "this is an AI feature, click here to do AI things". I have even used it.

The beige UI with orange accents probably refers to the design guidelines of Anthropic, Mistral, Microsoft AI and a bunch of other companies. They all try to use soft, non-threatening colours, and for some reason those two are a popular choice.

[eddythompson80]

Huh, ok. I disagree. Sparkle emoji and beige cream or orange accents every where is definitely AI output, not some “AI features here”. I don’t even see sparkle emoji on any AI websites or “features”. It’s only in sloppy output and most people will tell you to remove it because it screams slop too much.

[NicuCalcea]

Here are just a few examples I found in a couple of minutes:

- https://www.salesforce.com/artificial-intelligence/

- https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/

- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Meta_AI_...

- Literally the Gemini logo

[40four]

I’m tempted to add to this list, but Sparkle emoji has so clearly become a ubiquitous symbol for “this feature is enhanced by AI”, I’m surprised at the push back from the other commenter.

I’ve never seen or heard anyone mention sparkle emoji as a tell-tail sign of AI generated content, in the way that you hear about em-dash for example.

But I have seen the icon used in just about every website/app that wants to let you know they are using “AI” in some form or another.