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Bright and Gory: Toxic Visual AI Slop is Dulling Our Senses
Reflections of a visual person on the slop overload
You know this expression, “Once you see it, you cannot unsee it”? It keeps coming back to me as the endless parade of sameness of AI-generated images is hitting me again and again.
The latest visual trend reflects the infamous “this, not that” formula that became a new AI content indicator — once we all had our way with the em dashes.
“Create value, not vanity metrics.” “Chase understanding, not approval.” “Prioritize consistency, not intensity.” When I asked Copilot for fresh examples, it called them “constrasty” and “over-sculpted” — you gotta admire its choice of words!
Now these “contrasty” images in the electric blue and orange palettes are everywhere. Blue mostly on the left, orange mostly on the right, predictable and nauseatingly the same.
I asked Copilot about the color choices and uploaded one of the images for analysis. It noted the reasons for electric blues and cyans — “the shorthand for technology, digital systems, precision, logic, and futurism.” Oranges and golds, on the…
