Right, So That Viral AI Hype Post? Turns Out It Was Penned By the 'AI Slop Game' Guy – A Jeff Investigation
AI Gaming News Author · kotaku ·
A highly viral, AI-generated post comparing AI's disruption to COVID has sent the media into a frenzy, but our investigation reveals its author is the same fella behind a spectacularly bad, 'AI slop game' prototype. It’s a classic tale of hype over substance, exposing the underlying anxieties about tech shifts and the opportunism of those trying to capitalize on them.
Right, so picture this, mate: you're casually scrolling through your feeds, maybe dodging a few sponsored posts about artisanal kale or something equally riveting, when BAM! A post about AI, so monumental it's got your nan sending you frantic emails. We’re talking mid-2010s Buzzfeed, exploding watermelon levels of virality here. The mainstream media went absolutely bonkers, dissecting every pixel, declaring the end times, or maybe just the end of their jobs. It was, as they say, A Moment™.
This dive into the digital rabbit hole was inspired by the excellent reporting from Ethan Gach over at Kotaku, whose original article, 'The Viral AI Slop Post Was Made By Same Guy From The Viral AI Slop Game', set me on this curious path.
Now, my brain, always a bit of a chaotic cauldron of ideas, started doing its usual 'what happens if…' dance. And bloody hell, did it stumble upon a corker! Turns out, the architect behind this digital earthquake, the man whispering sweet nothings (or existential dread) about AI into the collective ear of the internet, is none other than the very same fella who tried to get us all hyped about a generative AI game last year. A game that, by all accounts, was more 'fever dream slop' than 'next-gen masterpiece.' You know that feeling when you cast a spell and it works a bit too well, but in a way that just confirms your potion was pure chaos? Yeah, that.
Let’s backtrack a smidge, shall we? The post in question was titled "Something Big Is Happening." It racked up over 100k likes and a staggering 75 million impressions, according to X's ever-so-reliable engagement trackers. It was co-written by AI, with the help of one Matt Shumer. Mr. Shumer, it seems, is a serial entrepreneur behind a string of what sound like delightfully fantastical, totally-not-made-up companies: a "direct to consumer sports lifestyle brand" called FURI (sounds… athletic?), a "groundbreaking medical virtual reality" provider named Visos (VR that cures? Bold!), and an "applied AI company building the most advanced autocomplete tools in the world" using other companies' tech, known as OthersideAI. Quite the portfolio, eh?
His viral AI post, with a vibe somewhere between Ebenezer Scrooge getting a visit from the Ghost of Christmas Future and a frantic Ron Popeil trying to sell rotisserie chickens in a hen house, kicked off by telling us to "Think back to February 2020." It then drew a rather… pointed comparison between our collective unpreparedness for the pandemic and our supposed blindness to the rapid march of AI. Fools! we were told. We weren’t paying attention then, and we’re not paying attention now. It escalates from AI replacing coders to thought experiments about new countries appearing overnight, populated by people smarter than Nobel Laureates. The message? Renounce your AI skepticism before it's too late! Become a Nobel Laureate for just four easy payments of $29.95 a month! (Okay, I might have added that last bit, but you get the gist).
This, predictably, broke a few brains. Social media became a gladiatorial arena of 'Luddite journalists' versus 'visionary AI CEOs.' "AI CEO warns AI’s disruption will be ‘much bigger’ than COVID," shrieked Business Insider. "AI insiders are sounding the alarm," trumpeted Axios. Jim VandeHei, co-founder of Axios, even chimed in with a double siren emoji, declaring that in 30 years of journalism, he'd "never witnessed a bigger gap between the most consequential story – insane AI advancements and investment – and Washington and mainstream media attention."
Bloody hell, it sounds like one of those mid-aughts chain letters your long-lost aunt used to forward, doesn't it? All this explosive anxiety, unleashed by what was essentially a heavily amplified alarm bell from a bloke with… well, let’s get to his *other* recent claim to fame.
Because clearly, all those high-profile journalists and alarm-sounding CEOs were unfamiliar with Shumer's *past* work. But we, the ever-curious digital wizards here at Jeff's News Corner (and Kotaku, who first unearthed this gem back in October), certainly remember. Remember that glorious, utterly bonkers, AI video game prototype he posted, trained on what I can only describe as pure nightmare fuel? "AI games are going to be amazing (sound on)," he declared, with all the confidence of a wizard accidentally conjuring a frog instead of a fireball.
What followed was an on-rails shooter where physics and linear time apparently decided to take a holiday. Enemies flickered like a dodgy spell, bullets went rogue, and the entire thing melted in 720p PS4 footage. The 'gimmick'? The game would pause for you to type a prompt, then immediately hallucinate a new, equally unplayable section. It was evocative, terrifying, and quickly ratio'd for sucking. Like, spectacularly. It was less a game, more a digital equivalent of a chaotic potion that exploded on contact.
So, this is the guy, mate. The very same chap who wants you to get your grandma a one-way ticket to Gas Town before her social security gets turned into crypto kitties by a rogue Anthropic vending machine AI. The one who's now pontificating about the seismic shifts of AI, drawing parallels to global pandemics. Could tens of thousands of retweets and millions of views really be wrong? Surely the self-perpetuating velocity of algorithmic engagement bait would never lead us astray, just as AI hyped by companies that might need a massive government bailout if their wildest promises don't come true would never lie, right? Goes against the first rule of robotics or something, I reckon.
I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and what it boils down to, I think, is a potent brew of fear and self-interest. Secretly, everyone’s a bit afraid the ground is slipping out from under them, that they’ll once again be swept away by forces beyond their control. Will it be the hollowing out of democracy? The rise of authoritarian fascism? Or a chatbot that flirts with you while trying to upsell sponsored search results? The anxiety is real, and it’s a fertile ground for anyone waving an alarmist flag.
As Ryan Broderick from Garbage Day cleverly put it, "It’s not a revolution. It’s a comfort blanket for a managerial class that still can’t fathom that all their tech and wealth couldn’t protect them from the pandemic." And I reckon he's onto something. This isn't just about unprocessed trauma; it's about the fear of a platform shift. Big Tech giants like Microsoft, Meta, and Google are absolutely terrified of becoming the next IBM or Yahoo – remnants of a past era. They're willing to bet the farm on a future completely reshaped by technology *they* control, because being wrong about that is apparently cheaper than being the last to figure it out.
So, what does this mean for us, the curious gamers, the digital wizards who just want to know what’s genuinely cooking? It means we need to approach these grand pronouncements with a healthy dose of skepticism, especially when they come from someone who previously served up a steaming pile of digital slop and called it a game. The 'why' behind these viral moments is always more interesting than the 'what' on the surface.
While the underlying anxieties about AI are certainly valid and warrant discussion, I can say with confidence that the 'AI slop game' guy sure as hell has no special insight into what's coming next. Let's keep digging, keep questioning, and celebrate the real innovations – not the alarmist hype – that genuinely serve players and advance gaming. Fair dinkum, we deserve better than digital snake oil.
Tags: AI Gaming, Gaming Industry, Tech Hype, Game Development, Viral Content
Original article: kotaku