Are some of the most popular comedic accounts on social media actually AI? On Instagram, AI aggregator accounts reportedly repackage comedians' material with fabricated performers and use those videos to steer viewers to OnlyFans pages.
The issue reached Instagram chief Adam Mosseri, who has said he is not sure what the answer is, according to Futurism.
Here's what to know
George Brett Olson (@georgebrettolson), a comedian with 289,000 followers on Instagram, recently posted a video alleging that AI account "Tiffany Sloan" had taken his joke and even mirrored his outfit, with some of the accounts racking up millions of views.
As Futurism noted, citing Wired's reporting, Olson isn't the only comedian affected as AI slop accounts steal real bits, replace them with AI-generated characters, and use the clips to push viewers to OnlyFans pages. Those fake comics are often portrayed as "voluptuous young women" to turn the stolen jokes into a monetized funnel.
In response to the wave of AI slop, Mosseri said that he doesn't "think it's practical for us to try and ban Al content from the platform," noting that some of the content provides value and that Instagram would need time to develop a game plan to address the "tricky" issue, per Futurism.
"If an Al creator is ripping off content wholesale, it would be good for us to work out what we can do about that," Mosseri said. "I'm not sure what it would be, but I'll make sure to talk to the team and look into it."
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Mosseri also affirmed that he is "very worried about this trend" and said Instagram already allows creators to make copyright claims when they believe an account has stolen their intellectual property. "We need a way to help those creatives without letting bad actors make more fake claims (happens all the time unfortunately)," he added, per Futurism.
In the meantime, creators will likely have to find infringements themselves, report them one post at a time, and hope moderation catches up.
Where can I learn more?
These stories look at the broader backlash to AI-generated content and Instagram's struggle to rein it in.
• Across social media, disturbing fake movie posters have people questioning what images online are real.
• On Instagram, an AI therapy bot left users unsettled by how human it sounded.
• Instagram users found energy-sucking AI profiles and recoiled at another wave of synthetic spam.
• A comedian roasted an audience member after AI use became the punchline.
• Brands are now proving ads aren't AI-made as audiences grow suspicious of synthetic media.
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