'Will AI Slop and Deepfakes Kill Culture?'

Moderating a conversation with Caroline Busta and Simon Denny, I framed “AI slop” as emotionally manipulative content engineered for virality. We explored a utopian possibility — that synthetic excess might drive audiences back toward live encounters — and a dystopian one, in which attention spans and shared standards of truth eroded beyond repair. As Simon suggested, AI could function as a language for reframing the present through the past, while Caroline argued that even slop might become raw material for new forms of meaning-making if shaped by rigorous protocols. Yet the underlying question remains: Will AI create new culture or usher in what I called a “post-truth, post-authenticity era” in which focus, authorship and trust will be permanently devalued and eroded.