On Hmmburger, I posted a short diatribe about what I am feeling is an extremely annoying part of the online experience now. Generative content for thumbnails is a turn off from engaging any further with the media that is attached to it.
Legitimately, just use stock photos. Support someone out there who is making a living creating one-off images, even if you’ll never know their name. Go to Unsplash if you need something for your media’s thumbnail, it’s much better than a slop machine
I don’t think this is something that can be put back in the box and our constant feedback of what we don’t like becomes data to tweak the machine to further allow its encroachment.
Another awful usage of these generative machines, is for flyer creation which has been reported by 404 Media. It made sense businesses would use these for the current internet ecosystem, but when I saw it used for innocuous internal flyers where the stakes weren’t even present, it felt gross and unfunny.
I was reminded of how we used to make fun of flyers with bad clip art and comic sans, but man, those were way more human than what we’re plagued with right now.
