Roku is giving the masses what they never asked for: an unending conveyor belt of AI slop.
Those exploring the mines of the free channels that Roku has to offer — yes, there are people that actually tune in to them — may have noticed a new one called “Fairground AI,” which was quietly added earlier this week and spotted by Cord Cutters News.
It broadcasts AI-generated abominations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only interruption to this slop flow state are intermittent ads — which are also AI-generated. It sounds more like a concept for a sci-fi torture device than it does a source of genuine entertainment, but it is, unfortunately, real.
Some Roku users took notice of the channel, grimly joking on social media that the “future of entertainment is here.”
In one clip that gives an idea of the bottom-of-the-barrel slop that it’s force feeding viewers, we see an AI movie that’s apparently meant to be some sort of medieval drama, only with laggy physics that makes it look like it takes place on the Moon. If there is a plot, it’s masterfully hidden underneath the bizarre way it cuts to different scenes, not to mention dialog that’s delivered with the cadence and awkward pauses of a mid-2000s video game cutscene. No one blinks when they talk.
There’s also classic cases of AI-mangled imagery. At point, some grunt manning the castle wall whips out a weapon that is an incomprehensible fusion of crossbow and rifle, and fires. When it does, the arrow — not a bolt — travels backward onto the bizarre chimera of a weapon. Our guess is that this was not an intentional homage to Christopher Nolan’s 2020 time travel clunker “Tenet.”
“Finally, AI can unleash the creative potential of people who can’t write, don’t understand pacing or transitions, are unfamiliar with human facial expressions, etc,” one observer joked.
“Shame they didn’t use the ‘with good acting’ prompt,” jeered another.
Imagine this low quality content, only on a constant loop. When we tuned in on a whim, the first thing we saw was a giant cosmic octopus smashing together spaceships, which was intercut with the destruction being wreaked by another huge octopus on a sci-fi city, while a futuristic ninja heroine runs from the carnage amid crowds of uncanny humans and grotesque aliens.
Fairground AI’s creator, Colin Petrie-Norris Fairground, teased its launch last week, calling it the first fully ad-supported streaming TV channel dedicated to AI content. According to Variety, the AI content is made by creators that Petrie-Norris found on social media, including Kelly Boesch, Kavan the Kid’s Phantom X Studio, filmmaker Ryan Phillips, Wonder Studios and Massive Studios. If you aren’t familiar with any of those names, consider it a good thing.
At the time of the interview, Petrie-Norris didn’t reveal what platforms would be distributing his channel, but promised “massive reach.” He also promised that the “gorgeous things” it’d be showing would be far removed the terrible AI slop you see on social media because of their attention to story details, per Variety. The evidence collected by our eyeballs suggests otherwise.
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