How Facebook became a wasteland of AI spam

Have you met Shrimp Jesus yet? He’s the most recognizable example of thousands upon thousands of bizarre AI-created images that are flooding Facebook’s algorithm and its users’ feeds.

Jason Koebler is a cofounder of 404 Media and cohost of the 404 Media podcast. “Just in the last six months, since this started happening, we’ve gone from very realistic AI, to just truly bizarre stuff,” says Koebler.

So who, exactly, is engaging with these random fake images? And why? The answer tells a story that will give you a whole new perspective on just how many people on the world’s largest social media platform are, well, actually humans.

You can subscribe to The Big Story podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google and Spotify. You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.