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Roku is giving the masses what they never asked for: an unending conveyor belt of AI slop.<\/p>\n
Those exploring the mines of the free channels that Roku has to offer \u2014 yes, there are people that actually tune in to them \u2014 may have noticed a new one called \u201cFairground AI,\u201d which was quietly added earlier this week and spotted by Cord Cutters News<\/a>.<\/p>\n It broadcasts AI-generated abominations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only interruption to this slop flow state are intermittent ads \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Some Roku users took notice of the channel, grimly joking on social media that the \u201cfuture of entertainment is here.\u201d<\/p>\n In one clip that gives an idea of the bottom-of-the-barrel slop that it\u2019s force feeding viewers,\u00a0we see an AI movie that\u2019s 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\u2019s masterfully hidden underneath the bizarre way it cuts to different scenes, not to mention dialog that\u2019s delivered with the cadence and awkward pauses of a mid-2000s video game cutscene. No one blinks when they talk.<\/p>\n There\u2019s 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 \u2014 not a bolt \u2014 travels backward onto the bizarre chimera of a weapon. Our guess is that this was not an intentional homage to Christopher Nolan\u2019s 2020 time travel clunker \u201cTenet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFinally, AI can unleash the creative potential of people who can\u2019t write, don\u2019t understand pacing or transitions, are unfamiliar with human facial expressions, etc,\u201d one observer joked<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cShame they didn\u2019t use the \u2018with good acting\u2019 prompt,\u201d jeered another.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Fairground AI\u2019s 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<\/a>, the AI content is made by creators that Petrie-Norris found on social media, including Kelly Boesch, Kavan the Kid\u2019s Phantom X Studio, filmmaker Ryan Phillips, Wonder Studios and Massive Studios. If you aren\u2019t familiar with any of those names, consider it a good thing.<\/p>\n At the time of the interview, Petrie-Norris didn\u2019t reveal what platforms would be distributing his channel, but promised \u201cmassive reach.\u201d He also promised that the \u201cgorgeous things\u201d it\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n