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As people become increasingly fatigued with second guessing whether media bares any hallmarks of AI, ‘human made’ is fast becoming its own USP. How grimly predictable.
Earning a crust in the world of publishing means my colleagues and I are more accustomed to dodging AI slop than most.
Much like the machine learning systems continually reinventing themselves, we’re becoming increasingly adept over time, specifically at twigging where the creative output of a human begins and ends with a prompt sent to a chatbot.
While the hallmarks of generative AI may go over the head of a casual consumer, or anyone who isn’t chronically online, we’re wide awake to just how much computer generated content we’re wading through on a daily basis – and it’s concerning.
You’d be surprised at how many respectable institutions publish articles entirely untouched by critical thought or human input, either unaware or unperturbed by the prospect of being caught. As someone largely reliant on the internet for updates on world events and creative inspiration, it’s incredibly disconcerting that even so-called ‘think pieces’ aren’t exempt.
To masquerade as having value to bring to an important conversation or debate is brazen and shameless, especially considering free AI detection tools and plugins are literally everywhere. Besides, to the trained eye, they’re not even needed most of the time.
If an article is chockfull of overly earnest and absolutist sentiments, an abundance of long subheadings, overdoes M dashes or semicolons, and regularly uses the rule of three to make examples, you’re almost certainly reading text churned out by AI. If you take these points into the wild wild web, you’ve basically gained a new superpower. Congratulations.
Activision’s statement on their AI usage in ‘Call of Duty’
“We use a variety of digital tools, including AI tools, to empower and support our teams to create the best gaming experiences possible for our players. Our creative process continues to be led by the talented… pic.twitter.com/m2vcJgDyXx
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) November 14, 2025
I’m aware this reticence is very personal, but as the digital experience becomes progressively more saturated with AI, aversion to the technology within creative works or spaces is growing notably, particularly among young people.
It’s not just that half of the videos on Twitter or TikTok we see aren’t actually real. It’s that early assertions that AI would disrupt all industries are starting to play out, and people don’t want to engage with media that one, lacks feeling, and two, burns a hole in the pocket of real creators.
If you don’t believe me, check the YouTube comments on Coca-Cola’s new Christmas ad, which opted to shoddily throw together AI generated clips instead of work created by real animators. After being hammered for their decision, the company doubled down on using AI citing a far quicker turnaround for the project – like anyone other than their own execs give a shit.
There was zero rebuttal to criticism that Coca-Cola put more onus on hiding the limitations of AI than building a memorable commercial. ‘Tis the season it’s always the real thing’… until it isn’t.
Gaming is going through a similar trust collapse, thanks to the recent release of the monstrosity that is Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7. Despite the franchise’s massive financial muscle and creative resources, the game has been critically slammed for its lack of originality, rehashed gameplay, and chiefly: it’s overt use of AI generated cosmetics.
