AI slop: fighting back one click at a time
AI slop is a dime-a-dozen these days, and it's almost impossible to distance yourself from it. With video generation software like Veo 3 or Sora 2 and image generation like Gemini's Nano Banana, anyone with a subscription can make production-grade content in a matter of minutes.
Fortunately, Pinterest has released a feature allowing users to turn off AI-generated images from appearing in their feed. Hundreds of thousands of people on X like illustrator @hansoeii are celebrating this change, calling it a good step in the right direction.
YOU CAN TURN OFF AI IMAGES ON PINTEREST NOW!!!! pic.twitter.com/xr1RiyFhdH
If you are a Pinterest user, here's all you need to know about it, and a guide for how to turn off these options.
How to turn off AI-generated images
1) Log in to your profile
2) Click on settings
3) Click on the "Refine your recommendations" option
4) Go to the "GenAI interests" tab
5) Grey out all the options there
Trying it out with a few of our colleagues, they were all surprised at how easy it was to disable the feature, which is a breath of fresh air, seeing as companies like Meta are increasingly adamant on pushing AI content in our faces.
Unfortunately, this feature hasn't worked perfectly, and users such as @yogesh_gosavi_ report that their feed is still populated with AI content even after turning it off in their settings, and others say that turning off AI content "ruins their recommendations".
Reading this tweet, felt like this 🗿 pic.twitter.com/Xf40SWAR94
On top of this, Pinterest implemented policy changes earlier this year stating that they would collect and use your data to "train, develop and improve our technology such as our machine learning models, regardless of when Pins were posted." This clause remains in effect, so people's data is still being used to train GenAI models and Machine Learning Models even though they won't be recommended those kinds of posts as often.
While Pinterest is unable to fully distance itself from GenAI, this is a step that people, especially artists and illustrators, have lauded as being in the right direction. Companies like Meta are pushing for GenAI's inclusion in everything, from data collection to the Vibes feed, but Pinterest has seemingly slowed down on the GenAI rush, giving users more control over their experience of the app.