Every single person in my life knows, to some degree, that I absolutely hate AI. I’ve only used ChatGPT once in my life to gather some sources for a project due the next day. I refuse to use any generator in the hopes of cartoonifying myself in a Studio Ghibli-esque style. I can’t even laugh at the Sora Jake Paul videos making fun of him.
Whenever my dad has the audacity to suggest I should look into the AI market for a career, I bury my head willingly in the sand. I would rather walk over hot coals while balancing a stack of Colleen Hoover books on my head in the middle of nowhere. I can’t support something that is damaging the work of artists across the world — a so-called “tool” that takes away thousands of jobs Americans need as we enter an economic crisis, and a technology destroying the environment, water source by water source.
Imagine my absolute horror when I went down the AI cat cheating story rabbit hole at the beginning of the school year. TikTok rabbit holes are (unfortunately) incredibly common for me. From one video to the next, the algorithm latches onto every search and every comment liked. As an AI hater, the first video should have probably never reached my page.
For those unaware (I wish I were you!), this genre of AI videos is widespread across TikTok, Instagram and even YouTube shorts. The videos always include cheating, but the prompts vary from model to model. One common prompt is a housewife cheating on her husband with a rich man. Sometimes the man is the one who cheats, choosing to marry his mistress and abandon his child. Almost every single video is set to an AI version of “Diamonds” by Rihanna or “What Was I Made For” by Billie Eilish — only with every lyric replaced by meows. Seriously.
As AI cannot think for itself, there's always a satisfying ending to each story. The cheating wife is destroyed when her ex moves on and her current lover leaves. The jilted child grows up on the streets and becomes a cop, finally arresting her father. Every victim gets some form of justice as the prompt generates the little rush of dopamine we get when the good guy wins.
These videos are just so weird. The sound effects are generic, with a big booming laugh and fake city sounds present constantly — even when the scene doesn’t call for it. There always seems to be an American flag (or bad attempt at one) hanging in every single frame. I’ve seen barrages of American flags on the streets of the city and then all over the bedroom. These AI cats have even had the flag in their car and bathroom. I don’t think we even have that many flags in the White House.
The videos also lean heavily into some gross stereotypes. The main character is usually a ginger or white cat, often lacking some aspect of conventional beauty. For example, a common plot will follow a plus-sized cat who gets cheated on, finally giving her the motivation to become skinny. Seriously, I cannot believe we’re making AI cats only desirable when they lose weight. Additionally, while the main characters are lighter cats, the affair partners will usually be black cats or the men will be different animals. These animal variants for the cheaters range from lion to panther to gorilla. Now, I totally could be reading too far into it, but the whole vilification of black cats in these videos leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Especially considering the black cat is never the victim, always the perpetrator.
Every account producing this content has generic and bot-sounding names somehow related to cats. They also manage to have an exorbitant number of followers. Meow Story Time has 342,900 followers and 4.6 million likes. Another channel, Zuoer Cats, has 299,000 followers and 2.8 million likes. It begs the question: Who's watching these?
Obviously, because AI does so well in any algorithm, the majority of views and likes could be casual. However, casual viewers wouldn’t be following. The best-case scenario would be that the majority of followers are bots bought by whatever AI is trained to run the account. It would point to why these videos either have emotion-filled comment sections or no comments at all. I just hope a lot of these followers aren’t kids.
Despite all the warnings about unrestricted internet access, it's practically inescapable for kids. AI slop is so dependent on instant gratification and the endless scroll — something that's even hard for adults to get out of. Think about kids and their underdeveloped brains. I’m no scientist, but I have a feeling watching AI content like this over and over again isn’t good for developing empathy and other life skills.
I don’t just hate these stupid videos for their inability to be creative and the horrible environmental impact. I hate this AI slop and all other content like it for its erosion of art, for infusing horrible stereotypes into impressionable minds.
I just hope whoever is actively watching this content consumes other real human media, whether that be PBS or classic books. Just anything with heart put into it.
Kate LaGatta is a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at kal273@cornell.edu.
‘Hater Friday’ runs on Fridays and centers around critiquing media or culture.
