Reddit’s community for posting “anything truly interesting as fuck” has removed an AI-generated video for violating the community’s first rule: “Posts MUST be INTERESTING AS FUCK!”
This is yet another example of how AI-generated content is flooding into online spaces that were previously exclusively for sharing content made by humans, and how in some cases self-organizing moderators are better at filtering out AI-generated content than many social media and other platforms owned by big tech companies.
The post in question, titled “Mother’s love is universal..” was shared last Friday on r/interestingasfuck and gained thousands of upvotes before being removed. The subreddit has grown to 13 million members since it was founded in 2008, making it one of the largest and oldest subreddits. The post showed a video of what appeared to be a green parrot spreading its wings over some chicks in a nest, protecting them from the rain. The video, which might be convincing at a glance, gained 12,000 upvotes and more than 300 comments, but many of the latter immediately called it out as being AI-generated. As some commenters pointed out, slight visual glitches and the unrealistic way lights and shadow fall in the image are clear tells that it’s AI-generated, signs experts have previously also told 404 Media they use to identify AI-generated images.
“All content must show something that is objectively interesting as fuck,” a post in the thread from the community’s moderators explaining why it was removed and locked for further discussion said. “Just because you find something IAF doesn’t mean anyone else will. It’s impossible to define everything that could be considered IAF, but for a general idea browse the top posts of all time from this subreddit.”
r/interestingasfuck moderators acknowledged my request for comment but did not provide one despite multiple requests. The user who posted the image didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Besides the first rule of the subreddit the moderators pointed to, r/interestingasfuck rules that could arguably apply to this AI-generated video include rule 6, “Provide a source when the title is in doubt,” which states: “If your post claims something that almost everyone can’t easily confirm from reading your title and viewing your content please provide some type of proof of what you claim.”
By now we are used to seeing AI-image generators infiltrate Reddit communities for sharing human-made content. In August, I reported about a Reddit community for sharing hentai of “monster girls” that was tired of and started moderating against AI-generated images.
There is no blanket rule against AI-generated content on Reddit, and that seems to be working. In fact, one way the monster girl controversy was diffused was that someone just started a new subreddit for AI-generated monster girls. And in the communities where that kind of content is not allowed, even if it’s 12 million members strong, unpaid community moderators who are personally invested in that community are motivated to enforce their rules. This is in stark contrast to Facebook, Instagram, and some porn tube sites, which have been completely flooded with AI-generated content.
However, as one commenter on the AI-generated parrot video noted, we’ve only just started seeing AI video generators become accessible to most people online, so it’s possible moderators will not be able to keep up with the flood forever.
“Within 3 years 90% of videos will be AI videos and no one will be able to tell,” the user said.
