Getting Rich Making A.I. Slop

Is creativity going out the window? Because now everyting is geared to please the almighty algorithm…going viral can now be quantified. Here is a summary:

Reporting from The New York Times, inside the booming economy of A.I.-generated junk content — and the surprisingly earnest entrepreneurs who built it into a multi-million dollar machine.

The story centers on Affiliate Network, a Brooklyn-based company that recruits ordinary people worldwide to flood TikTok and Instagram with mass-produced A.I. videos. Creators don't need cameras, equipment, or even a following — just a willingness to post constantly. The pitch: earn roughly $2 per thousand views. The reality: a top creator in Poland named Norbert Barszczewski posted 296 videos in a single month and collected $37,281. A 21-year-old in Brazil named Pedro Camargo cleared $78,000 in under a year using ChatGPT and a $99-a-month video tool. More than 200,000 people have signed up.

The content they make is deliberately disorienting — nonsensical characters like Tung Tung Tung Sahur, a log with legs wielding a baseball bat, engineered to confuse viewers into rewatching. Confusion, ambiguity, and abrupt endings aren't bugs; they're the formula. Affiliate Network's founder Roman Khaves has turned that formula into a services company with 50+ clients including Kalshi, Pump.fun, and an online casino — all paying to have their products smuggled into viral absurdity. The line between ad and entertainment has essentially dissolved.

The deeper question the story raises — whether this is slop or just the newest form of democratic art — goes deliberately unanswered. A 15-year-old, as one team member put it, can now compete with the biggest ad agency in New York. Whether that's beautiful or alarming depends entirely on who you ask.