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AI slop seems to be everywhere. Low-quality digital content made with artificial intelligence has flooded our feeds, screens and speakers. Is there anything we can do about it? If you want fewer cartoonish videos of dead celebrities, creepy or absurd images or fake bands playing synthetic tunes, a few platforms have rolled out settings and features to help minimize AI-generated content. Here is a guide on how to use them. But first, a caveat from Henry Ajder, who advises businesses and governments on AI and has been studying deepfakes since 2018. He warned that it’s incredibly difficult to entirely remove AI slop content entirely from all your feeds. He compared AI slop to the smog generated from the industrial revolution, when there weren’t any pollution controls in place. It’s going to be very, very hard for people to avoid inhaling, in this analogy. Pinterest Pinterest’s move to lean into the AI boom made it something of a poster child for the AI slop problem, as users complained that the online moodboard for pinning inspirational material by themes has become overrun with AI content. So Pinterest recently rolled out a tuner that lets users adjust the amount of AI content they see in their feeds. It rolled out first on Android and desktop operating systems, before starting on a more gradual rollout on iOS. Now, users can dial down the AI and add more of a human touch, Pinterest said, adding that it would initially cover some categories that are highly prone to AI modification or generation, such as beauty, art, fashion, and home decor. More categories have since been added, including architecture, art, beauty, entertainment, mens, womens, and childrens fashion, health, home décor, and sport, food, and drink. To use the tuner, go to Settings and then to refine your recommendations, and then tap on GenAI interests, where you can use toggles to indicate the categories you’d like to see less AI content. TikTok It’s no surprise that AI-generated videos proliferate on TikTok, the short-video sharing app. The company says there are at least 1.3 billion video clips on its platform it has labeled as AI-generated. TikTok said in November it was testing an update to give users more control of the AI-generated content in their For You feeds. It’s not clear when it will be widely available. TikTok did not respond to requests for comment. To see if you have it on the TikTok mobile app, go to Settings, then Content Preferences, then to Manage Topics where you’ll see a set of sliders to control various types of content, such as dance, humor, lifestyle, and nature. You can also access the controls from the For You feed, by tapping the Share button on the side of a post, then tap Why this Video, then Adjust your For You, and then Manage topics. There should be a new slider that allows you to dial down or turn up the amount of AI-generated content that you receive. If you don’t see it yet, it might be because you haven’t received the update yet. TikTok said late last year that it would start testing the feature in coming weeks. These controls are not available on the desktop browser interface. You won’t be able to get rid of AI content altogether TikTok says the controls are used to tailor the content rather than removing or replacing it entirely from feeds. This means that people who love AI-generated history content can see more of this content, while those whod rather see less can choose to dial things down, it said. Deezer Song generation tools like Suno and Udio let users create music merely by typing some ideas into a chatbot window. Anyone can use them to spit out polished pop songs, but it also means streaming services have been flooded with AI tunes, often by accounts masquerading as real artists. Among the music streaming platforms, only Deezer, a smaller European-based player, gives listeners a way to tell them apart by labeling songs as AI. Deezer has been really, really pushing the anti-AI generation music narrative, said Henry Ajder. Deezer says 60,000 fully AI-generated tracks, or more than 39% of the daily total, are uploaded to its platform every day and last year it detected and labeled more than 13.4 million AI tracks. The company says the people doing it are trying to make money by fraudulent streams. Change your platform If you can tear yourself away from Big Tech platforms, there is a new generation of apps targeting users who want to avoid AI. Cara is a portfolio-sharing platform for artists that bans AI-generated work. Pixelfed is an ad-free Instagram rival where users can join different servers, or communities, including one for art that does not allow AI-generated content. Spread is a new social media platform with content for people who want to access human ideas and escape the flood of AI slop. Watch out for the upcoming launch of diVine, a reboot of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s defunct short-form video app Vine. The app has only been available as a limited prerelease for Apple iOS. It promises No AI Slop and uses multiple approaches to detect AI. An Android beta app is expected soon. The company plans to launch it in app stores soon but needs more time to get ready for unexpectedly high demand. ___ Is there a tech topic that you think needs explaining? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your suggestions for future editions of One Tech Tip. Kelvin Chan, AP business writer
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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. Im Mark Sullivan, a senior writer at Fast Company,covering emerging tech, AI, and tech policy. This week, Im focusing on a new class of AI video generation tools that could let scammers speak with a completely different face and voice on video calls. I also look at how Apple employees see Tim Cooks appeasement of President Donald Trump, and why OpenAI models got worse at writing. Sign up to receive this newsletter every week via email here. And if you have comments on this issue and/or ideas for future ones, drop me a line at sullivan@fastcompany.com, and follow me on X @thesullivan. A scammers dream Video generation models have been improving over the past several years. Weve always known that things could get weird when generative video becomes nearly indistinguishable from real video, and were entering that phase now. Weve already seen convincing political and sexual imagery deepfakes. Another devious application of AI generative video will be phishing scams. Over the past six months or so, people have been posting on X about new AI tools that are capable of face swapping in real-time video. For example, the AI might make it look like its Leonardo DiCaprio or Scarlett Johansson saying my words and performing my facial expressions during a Zoom call. The AI analyzes the users facial movements and vocalizations in real time and sends them out via the faces of another person entirely. Some of these AI tools can generate a new face overlay using a single still image. So it may be possible for a scammer located anywhere in the world to find an image of a person on social media, use the AI to develop a reasonably convincing AI face from it, and then call one of the persons relatives asking for money. The scammer might use a sample of the persons voice to simulate the sound of the AI overlay character. Of course, the first people to be targets of such deepfake calls would likely be the elderly. They might be happy to hear from a grandchild, for instance, and perhaps less likely to question the authenticity of the video. They may not even know that such a simulation is possible. Theres a special place in hell for the perpetrator of such a scam, but it appears to be technically feasible. How Apple employees see Tim Cooks relationship with Trump Like other tech leaders, Apple CEO Tim Cook has chosen to engage with, rather than ignore, Donald Trump. Cook has never publicly endorsed Trump or donated to his presidential campaigns. But he did personally donate to Trumps inauguration fund, has visited the White House numerous times, and is in at least semi-regular contact with the president. During Trumps first term, Cook spoke out against the Muslim travel ban, the transgender military ban, and the presidents good people on both sides response to a deadly white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. In contrast, Cook has been quiet about the more extreme policies and actions Trump has brought to his second term. Until now. This week, Cook was forced to speak out, at least to Apple employees. Cook came under fire from employees and customers for attending a private VIP screening of Amazons new Melania Trump documentary at the White House on January 24, the same day that federal Customs and Border Patrol agents shot and killed VA hospital nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. This followed a January 7 incident in which an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good. Cook was silent about the Pretti shooting until the evening of January 27, when he reportedly sent a memo to Apple employees saying he is heartbroken about the Good and Pretti deaths and calling for de-escalation. He also said hed had a conversation on the matter with Trump. It may have had an effect. On Wednesday Trump tried to calm the backlash against ICE. Were going to de-escalate a little bit, he said, using the same term Cook did. (No actual de-escalation has taken place.) I suspect Cooks relationship with the president is purely transactional and strictly business. As people, Cook and Trump couldnt be more different. Based on conversations Ive had with people who work at Apple, the internal narrative is that Cook is dealing with Trump in the way thats most likely to ward off tariffs on iPhones, new regulations, and government probes of Apples various businesses. And, the narrative goes, Cook is speaking to Trump in language Trump understands. That explains the flattery and lavish gifts hes brought to the White House, the most recent of which hits some of Trumps favorite notes. The commemorative glass piece (resembling a silicon wafer) is mounted on a 24-karat gold base and engraved with Trumps name. The president loves gifts, he loves gold things, and he loves his own name. As I wrote for Fast Company earlier this week, the shootings of U.S. citizens Good and Pretti in Minneapolis may put Big Tech leaders political alliance with Trump to the test like never before. Even transactional friendships should be subject to some standards of trust and decency. If more violence happens, Cooks calls with Trump could become far less amicable. OpenAI sacrificed writing skill for coding skill in GPT-5 There was some backlash among users against OpenAIs latest model, GPT-5.2. People felt that the new model had less personality, less of a voice of its own. And these shortcomings are reflected in its writing, which many users say is harder to read and less natural-sounding than that of earlier models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged this week that GPT-5.2 isnt as good a writer as its predecessor GPT-4.5 was. I think we just screwed that up, Altman said during an internal developer town hall on January 26. With so much money on the line, I doubt it was a simple screwup. OpenAI was entertaining a different set of priorities when developing GPT-5.2. We put most of our effort in 5.2 into making it super-good at intelligence, reasoning, coding, engineering, that kind of thing, Altman said. And we have limited bandwidth here and sometimes we focus on one thing and neglect another. OpenAI may also have been responding to an industry-wide shift toward chatbots that are brainier but somewhat dullerthat sound less like unconditionally supportive friends and more like responsible adults. There are safety and liability reasons for this. OpenAI is now facing multiple legal claims that its chatbot failed to push back when vulnerable users (including minors) began talking about plans to end their own lives. OpenAI may also have felt pressure from Anthropics increasingly popular Claude Code tool, used by many developers to generate production-ready software code. GPT-5.2, which now underpins OpenAIs Codex coding tool, is better than earlier models at reasoning and coding skill. Whats unclear is why OpenAI cant have a model thats both a strong writer and a good coder. Anthropic seems to have achieved that with Claude. More AI coverage from Fast Company: Chip firm ASML to slash 1,700 jobs and posts record profit for 2025 thanks to AI boom Got an AI skill? Now you can prove it on LinkedIn Why Yann LeCun left Meta, and what it means for AIs next frontier How K-12 schools are left on their own to develop AI policies Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium. How much Trump violence will tech industry stomach before backing away
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Coffee giant Starbucks just announced its rewards program is about to get a major overhaul. On Thursday, the chain said its newly revamped rewards program will make its debut on March 10. According to Starbucks, it will feature a new, three-tier membership structure that will allow for “greater earning power” for its 35.5 million active North American members. The new program will allow consumers to move through three tiers: green (the starter level), followed by gold, and finally, its reserve membership tier. To achieve gold status, 500 stars are required. To become a reserve member, you’ll need to accumulate 2,500 stars within a 12-month period. The higher the tier, the more earning potential gets unlocked, with green members earning one star for every dollar spent, gold members earning 1.2 stars per dollar, and reserve members earning 1.7. The company also stated that, in response to customer feedback, it will be allowing customers to access rewards quicker with a new “60-star redemption tier.” After just 60 stars, members will be entitled to $2 off any item. Were redefining the industry with customer-focused benefits that set a new standard and ignite fandom,” Tressie Lieberman, Starbucks global chief brand officer, said in a press release. “Starbucks Rewards has always been about creating connection, and were evolving the program based on what our members told us matters most, offering faster, more meaningful benefits that make them feel appreciated. This evolution is a key milestone in our Back to Starbucks strategy and will reinvigorate what it means to be a Starbucks Rewards member. Starbucks’ announcement comes a day after the company released its first quarter fiscal earnings report, which showed the company made some major strides. Starbucks announced earnings per share of $0.56, just short of the company’s projection of $0.59. However, Starbucks traffic rose for the first time in eight quarters (two years). And, per the report, its earnings exceeded revenue expectations, earning $9.9 billion — more than the $9.7 billion it had anticipated. CEO Brian Niccol expressed optimism about the company’s future on CNBC’s Squawk Box, saying This is really just the beginning,” Niccol said. In fiscal 2026, were going to be shifting to play offense and to innovate. Were not finished with our Back to Starbucks plan or our broader transformation, but I am confident in our strategy, our progress, the pace of change, and the opportunity ahead of us. The company also outlined a long-term growth strategy, and is projecting that by 2028, U.S. same store sales will grow by at least 3% with operating margins of 13.5% to 15%. According to an analysis by InvestingPro, Starbucks has a market capitalization of $108.41 billion and annual revenue of $37.7 billion. The chain is trading at its Fair Value, with shares up 13% year-to-date.
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