If you support unions (DUers should) but still think it's OK to post AI slop, see the hundreds of Bluesky replies

[highplainsdem]

to this post of AI slop. Real anger and outrage from union members and union supporters.

I posted about this earlier but didn't realize, till I saw one of the replies to my thread, that some people here still don't understand that anger and outrage.

I did post a very small selection of the responses, but that small selection really can't convey the backlash that users/supporters of genAI deservedly get from union members and supporters who are focused on the ongoing battle against those who harm and exploit workers.

So I'm posting this separate thread because on a message board where we should support unions, people need to understand just how jarring and disgusting posting AI slop here WILL look to a lot - probably the vast majority - of union members and supporters who are new to this board. Where we've been seeing more and more slop here as if it's harmless entertainment, or somehow effective in fighting Trump. I've been trying to make it clear to DUers that even if it's anti-Trump, it's still pro-AI and pro-exploitation and anti-worker and anti-artist and anti-human.

And if you use it, you undermine your own credibility if you want people to think you oppose all the harm done by genAI. Including to workers.

See the reactions in the replies, and the quote-reposts, to the Bluesky post below, AI slop posted by the head of a teacher's union. Viewing the replies will require clicking on the post to see it on a separate page on Bluesky. If you seem to have run out of replies after reading for a while, look for the link to click for more at the bottom left of the visible replies. If you don't know how to find the quote-repost type of reply where the comments on the message below are above the quoted message, you just click the word quotes below the message you'll see on Bluesky.

And please read ALL of them, if you don't understand why it's wrong to use genAI.

This one was such fun… so I am sharing

— Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 (@rweingarten.bsky.social) 2025-12-25T15:03:54.480Z

[hlthe2b]

1. A lot of AI is ridiculously obvious; but some are not.

While I agree with the point being made--absolutely-- I think there is going to need to be a learning curve for many.

[mike_c]

4. Oops, wrong reply

My bad.

[highplainsdem]

9. I saved my reply to yours, if you want to repost your "don't throw out the baby with the bath water"

message. You'd edited by the time I clicked to preview my response.

[highplainsdem]

6. I know. But we have people here who are knowingly posting AI slop as if it's somehow a plus on a

Democratic message board, and it's important that they understand that it isn't. If they won't listen to me, maybe the hundreds of negative replies to that Bluesky post will finally get through to them.

[KPN]

35. True -- and I'm pretty confident that was the root purpose of this OP.

AI has its positives, but it’s likely that some of it’s consequences will be devastating for some, if not most or possibly even our specie.

[NewHendoLib]

2. So easy to spot, so awful. I've tried a few YouTube short

Documentaries on bands, and the weird voice they use, with the strange emphases and inflections, and errors, make them worthless.

[highplainsdem]

16. And those AI-slop documentaries are flooding YouTube now, making it harder and harder to find real

worthwhile content from humans. Making it harder for human creatives (as opposed to noncreative human AI users) to get the attention they deserve. And the monetization for their videos, if they want that.

[PatSeg]

23. And a lot of the AI slop that we see on social media

is coming from overseas. Just some people online trying to make a buck by baiting naive Americans who keep falling for their crap.

A lot of it is really obvious, but some of it is quite advanced and it is easy for even perceptive people to fall for it. Then it even goes further with people accusing legitimate posts and videos of being AI when they aren't.

I call out AI whenever I come across it and often block the pages they come from, but it is like playing whack-a-mole. It is like being invaded with cockroaches that multiply faster than you can block them.

[mdbl]

30. As far as the ones that are less obvious..

I noticed they use a familiar face and have them talking a mile a minute - like they are reciting something in a classroom. That usually tips me off. Also, the channel name is vague and tells you nothing about the creator.

[PatSeg]

36. That's interesting

I'll have to look for that, though I tend to avoid most videos online these days. Whenever possible, I'd prefer to read an article than listen to someone explain it to me.

Meanwhile, I've spent less and less time on YouTube. The past couple of years, I've been reading a lot of books. Helps keep me sane.

[SheltieLover]

3. Kick

[highplainsdem]

17. Thanks!

[SheltieLover]

21. Yw

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. K&R. Thanks for your work.

[highplainsdem]

10. You're welcome! Thanks for everything you've posted about this, too.

[MerryBlooms]

7. r&k

[highplainsdem]

18. Thank you!

[progressoid]

8. Excellent responses in that thread.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. I'll Second That!

I read them all and don't recall anything positive.
Just those taking her to task & there were dozens of those.

[highplainsdem]

19. Hundreds. There should be a link to see more replies when you get to the end of the first batch.

Did you look at the quote-reposts, too, which is a separate set of replies you reach by clicking the word quotes under the message on Bluesky?

[ProfessorGAC]

22. I Thought I Did

I hit links for more posts and one post with links to those agreeing with her.

Maybe I missed something.

[highplainsdem]

24. You have to click on her post here

This one was such fun… so I am sharing

— Randi Weingarten 🖇️📚✊🇺🇸 (@rweingarten.bsky.social) 2025-12-25T15:03:54.480Z

to get it to open in another tab or page on Bluesky, and then under her message you'll see info about the number of quotes - 95 quotes currently - and if you click on the word quotes there on Bluesky you'll see the messages from people who commented on her post in posts of their own, separate from replies on Randi's page. They are NOT friendly comments agreeing with her. The ones mentioning "ratio" are using a social media term for posts with very few likes and a large number of negative replies.

The page with the quote-posts does take a while to open fully because Bluesky is gathering posts from lots of different accounts. Here's one:

Posting AI slop should be immediately disqualifying for union leadership.

There's a convention for AFT next year. Teachers should be seriously looking for new leaders informed on the issues of today.

— Tim Ford (@timfordwrites.bsky.social) 2025-12-29T02:25:15.192Z

[ProfessorGAC]

41. I Did

I saw them all.
I grossly underestimated how many I read.

[highplainsdem]

14. Aren't they, though? As much as she upset her own union members and left them feeling betrayed, their

responses are incredibly valuable in showing how much anger there is about genAI, and why it's there.

I hope she learned something from the replies she got, too. If not, that union needs a new leader asap.

[Melon]

11. Generated AI for content is slop...but AI technology is here to stay and will continue to exponentially grow.

[highplainsdem]

12. GenAI is a technological dead end, inherently flawed with hallucinations, fundamentally unethical because of

stolen training data, and with chatbots that pose risks to humans as they simulate conscious and sympathetic beings.

But some types of machine learning also called AI are fine.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. Microplastics are here to stay as well, doesn't mean we shouldn't try to eat less of them.

[highplainsdem]

20. Right!

[Cirsium]

26. So what?

Cancer is more likely here to stay than AI and exponentially grows. Does that mean we can't be against it?

[Bobstandard]

25. Somebody tell Thom Hartman

Can’t stand his AI bumper “music”.

[Cirsium]

28. Has he changed it recently?

I know he has used the same music for a long time. It is weird, but I think thast is because it is played backward (IIRC).

[highplainsdem]

40. He shouldn't be using AI. It's an insult to real musicians and helps only AI bros. He could ask his

fans who are musicians to write something for him.

[LudwigPastorius]

27. DU ain't as pro-union as it likes to think it is.

I remember when the Stop Online Piracy Act (sponsored and co-sponsored by 15 Democrats, including John Conyers and Adam Schiff, and endorsed by SAG, Actors Equity, the American Federation of Musicians, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America, the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, etc. etc. etc.) was explicitly opposed by Skinner and many, many posters here.

[highplainsdem]

33. Well, we're all endangered by genAI now, and even if DUers aren't in unions, they need to understand

that.

And as Democrats who hope to win elections, we need to understand how people in those unions feel.

There are Labour Party members and officials in the UK now who are pandering to the AI bros and trying to give them everything they want (including the use of British intellectual property), and they're being idiots who are probably costing Labour support.

[EarlG]

37. Opposing that bill didn't have anything to do with being anti-union

If that bill had passed, DU likely would not exist. SOPA would have replaced the DMCA's safe harbor provision and would have made owners of web communities like DU responsible for policing the posts of every single user for copyright violations. The bill would have allowed law enforcement to literally shut down entire domains if a single user posted some kind of copyrighted content on that domain.

There was broad bipartisan support AND OPPOSITION to the bill, and we were not exactly outliers in opposition to it. When I refreshed my memory of this bill from its Wikipedia page, it turned out that organizations such as EFF and the ACLU were opposed to it, as were the American Library Association, who said it could expose libraries to prosecution. Nancy Pelosi was opposed to it, as were most major Internet companies, including Wikipedia.

[highplainsdem]

42. Thanks for explaining! Just googled the date for that and it was back when caregiving and

admin stuff elsewhere gave me less time for DU. And I was focusing on ALEC back then: https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x591230

[LudwigPastorius]

43. I disagree, and I'm not going to argue , but I will say...

that the “what are ya gonna do” attitude toward AI companies hoovering up petabytes of artists’ works can almost certainly be traced to the failure to pass any meaningful legislation to stem the tide of copyrighted works online. There are now at least a couple of generations who would look at you like you are crazy if you suggested paying for music, movies, or art.

Sure, it’s our life’s work, but it’s persistently “free” because no one has to take the responsibility, by law, for it being available for download. Nobody really cares unless it’s their ox being gored.

[Cirsium]

29. Thanks

Keep up the good work. Much appreciated.

[The Madcap]

31. What worries me

Is how so many companies are tying their data into AI platforms and then "encouraging" their employees to use them for data retrieval. I won't name any companies here, but I will say that I have experienced this. When I try to pull data, I get lots of garbage. Our old search engines do a better job.

I can't visualize this improving, as the errors seem to compound.

[nilram]

32. Feel like we should bring back the un-rec experiment

[highplainsdem]

34. Why would you want to unrec a post about how union members and supporters feel about AI slop? If

you have good reasons, you should be able to explain them.

[KPN]

38. Kicked for visibility. Seems our species denial of unintended consequences

knows no limits anymore .

[GiqueCee]

39. I have earned my living...

... as a professional artist for 60 years, and long ago stopped counting the number of times I've been fucked over by the supposed "Smartest Guys in the Room", which is to say "businessmen and/or -women" with delusions of grandeur, and a galloping case of the Dunning Kruger Effect. Their brazen contempt for creative people, without whom many of their businesses wouldn't even exist, still enrages me. Now they're using AI to do it, but their contemptuous disregard for the rights of artists hasn't changed one iota. They actively resent people that can do something that they cannot; that's how petty and self-centered they are.