Cat videos, selfies and dad jokes are typical fare for any social media feed but Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is introducing a new twist: they’re all made by artificial intelligence.
The Meta founder and chief executive has announced the launch of Vibes, a new feed on the Meta AI app comprised entirely of AI-made videos.
The arrival of powerful video models has led to further commentary on the wave of AI “slop” – a term for mass-produced, often bizarre content that clutters up feeds – that has hit the internet. In August the Guardian revealed that almost one in 10 of the fastest-growing YouTube channels globally were showing AI-generated content only.
AI-generated content has become an increasingly prominent feature on consumers’ feeds as the underlying technology has become more sophisticated, with the release of Google’s Veo3 model in May creating a new wave of content, although film-makers are already using the models to create high-quality material as well.
Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, and Zuckerberg said in an Instagram post that Vibes would be a “feed of expressive AI-generated videos from artists and creators”. The feed will be available in the US and in more than 40 other countries but not in the UK.
Zuckerberg illustrated the post with an AI-made clip titled “Dad trying to calculate the tip on a $30 lunch”, with a parent – bearing a resemblance to Zuckerberg – stating: “Oh gosh … I think it’s probably to going to be, I dunno, at least $600bn.” One Instagram user commented under Zuckerberg’s video: “Bros posting ai slop on his own app.”
Other videos posted by Zuckerberg include an Egyptian princess taking a selfie, a kitten wearing bespoke baker garb kneading dough, cute fluffy characters and a dog running through a waterlogged field.
In a statement announcing the Vibes feed, Meta said users can create their own content or “remix” a video from the feed, including new visuals and music. Meta illustrated the statement with videos including a Honey Monster-like cuddly creature riding a bicycle and a moose jumping on a trampoline.
Although Meta has its own suite of AI models, called Llama, for Vibes it will be using video-generating models from the AI labs Midjourney and Black Forest, according to a post on Threads from Meta’s new chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang.
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The Meta announcement came as Harvard Business Review highlighted the emergence of “workslop”, or low-quality documents and presentations that have been created by AI tools in the workplace. HBR said a survey of more than 1,100 full-time employees found that four out of 10 respondents said they had received workslop over the past month.