In “everything is a remix” Kirby Ferguson discusses how most if not all of modern media is remixed or copied in some way from older media. Most recently remixing has taken on a new definition with AI image generation. AI models can be used to generate photorealistic pictures or videos with just a simple text prompt and/or reference image. This is different from what Ferguson reported on in 2023. In 2023, AI could still make art with a single text prompt, but it failed to make photorealistic images to completion and had a unique style that made the viewer keenly aware that an AI generated that image. Now in late 2025 it seems that it is growing close to impossible to tell and AI face swaps and video generation that’s convincingly realistic is trending online.
These new exceedingly powerful capabilities of AI have managed to dupe the internet countless times by just deconstructing thousands of images that might be related to the prompt and reconstructing them into something that the AI thinks is satisfying to the user’s request. In my opinion, this method of creation is not art. The AI merely is just copying others with no creative or thoughtful intent. This is different from remixing where the artist who copies, samples, or clips a piece of media and reuses it creates something with thought and purpose behind it. An AI model physically cannot do that when “creating art.” As Ferguson noted when referring to the advancements lately in AI, “Sophisticated Illustrations were suddenly as easy as typing a word or two.” (Ferguson, 42:28) This quote from Ferguson further supports the notion of thoughtless creation of “art,” or more appropriately, pictures and videos as being invalid forms of art.
These thoughtless generations of photos and videos have flooded the internet in 2025 especially social media platforms like Instagram where they attract lots of engagement with minimal work from the person who generated it. Even now, some accounts are starting to exist without a person even behind them and specialize in putting out AI generated videos that exist to farm engagement from viewers on the platform and make some creator behind the account money from ads and engagement. This takes place with AI short films, pictures that are artistic, and even music which has become increasingly popular. Lately, these generations have coined the term “AI Slop” indicating that people other than myself are dissatisfied with the lack of creative effort or though going into AI generations that are passed off as modern media or art. This increasingly popular term supports the notion that in order to be valid, a piece of art or medias creator must put thought, creative expression, and artistic intent into the piece. Ferguson leaned toward this notion in his video, and I believe that had the video come out two years later, it would have condemned AI art and image/video generation being passed off as creative or thoughtful much more than he did in his original video. The increasing prevalence of AI art will force artists to be more creative, thoughtful, and intentional in modern art and media.
I did not use AI to generate the ideas or text of this post.