Bloomberg
As corporate managers outsource creative judgment to chatbots and synthetic slop crowds public feeds, social media is abandoning personal sharing for broadcast entertainment while authentic connection retreats into private direct messages.
AI-assisted summary of AI Is Upending the Lives of People Who Do Social Media Professionally — original source. Check the original for full context.
Source published:
Key ideas
- Executive adoption of generative AI has triggered widespread 'AI brain' in corporate marketing, where managers offload creative judgment onto chatbots without formal training or guidelines, deeply demoralizing creative staff. (5:00)
- Instructional and utility-based content creators face rapid obsolescence from frictionless LLM troubleshooting, whereas creators offering parasocial connection and idiosyncratic points of view retain a defensible moat. (10:00)
- Spam accounts are exploiting platform discovery algorithms by publishing dozens of AI-generated clips daily, with multiple top-viewed Instagram Reels now relying on synthetic footage that monetizes viewer confusion. (22:45)
- Public social media feeds have fully transitioned into broadcast entertainment optimized for non-follower discovery, while genuine interpersonal sociality has migrated almost entirely into private direct messages. (30:00)
Detailed notes
## Background Published by Bloomberg on September 24, 2026, via podcast RSS, this live episode of Odd Lots was recorded at The Vermont in Hollywood. According to the show description, it provides a primer on social media's AI era featuring commentators Rachel Karten (author of the Link in Bio newsletter) and Taylor Lorenz (founder of User Mag) exploring feed uncanny valleys, AI slop, changing creative roles, and whether internet time is shifting toward chatbots.
## TL;DR Odd Lots hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal convene internet culture experts Rachel Karten and Taylor Lorenz to analyze how generative AI is upending the creator economy and corporate marketing. The panel details the demoralizing rise of 'AI Brain' management where executives outsource creative taste to chatbots, alongside audience double standards that tolerate viral AI fruit slop while penalizing commercial brands that cut corners. They evaluate practical agency use cases versus copywriting failures, push back against apocalyptic AI existential risk narratives, and debate the shift toward ambient computing. Ultimately, the discussion illuminates how feeds are fracturing into algorithmic entertainment broadcasts driven by non-follower reach, forcing genuine human connection into private DMs and group chats.
## Atmosphere & style Recorded before an energetic theater audience in Los Angeles, the conversation carries a lively, fast-paced, and sharp conversational rhythm fueled by industry cynicism. The dynamic between the hosts and panelists blends witty, sardonic humor with insider clarity, as deadpan observations about viral AI Mentos trucks and corporate Copilot mockups draw genuine amusement from the crowd. It feels less like an academic technology lecture and more like a cathartic, behind-the-scenes trade debrief where seasoned digital veterans bluntly diagnose the uncanny, exhausting realities of modern internet work.
## Bulletin - `05:00` Executive adoption of generative AI has triggered widespread 'AI brain' in corporate marketing, where managers offload creative judgment onto chatbots without formal training or guidelines, deeply demoralizing creative staff. - `10:00` Instructional and utility-based content creators face rapid obsolescence from frictionless LLM troubleshooting, whereas creators offering parasocial connection and idiosyncratic points of view retain a defensible moat. - `22:45` Spam accounts are exploiting platform discovery algorithms by publishing dozens of AI-generated clips daily, with multiple top-viewed Instagram Reels now relying on synthetic footage that monetizes viewer confusion. - `30:00` Public social media feeds have fully transitioned into broadcast entertainment optimized for non-follower discovery, while genuine interpersonal sociality has migrated almost entirely into private direct messages.
## Key takeaways - `00:00` The advent of virtually free and frictionless generative content has induced existential anxiety and negative vibes across the influencer and social media marketing sectors. - `05:00` Corporate managers increasingly outsource creative instincts to LLMs—such as asking Claude if a joke is funny—forcing creative staff to fake AI-branded concepts just to get client approval. - `05:00` Consumers view creative production quality as a proxy for overall operational integrity, causing audiences to distrust physical brands that cut corners with automated, synthetic advertising. - `10:00` Audiences exhibit a double standard toward AI media: they binge low-stakes synthetic entertainment like fruit soap operas, but react aggressively when commercial brands deceive them. - `10:00` Informational DIY and instructional creators are most vulnerable to displacement by AI chatbots, while personality-driven and commentary-based creators maintain human defensibility. - `15:00` The political opposition to AI remains fragmented because local environmental coalitions fighting physical data centers have fundamentally divergent motivations from existential risk theorists. - `15:00` Anthropomorphizing software models by assigning them human intent or intellect distorts regulatory clarity, corporate accountability, and legal liability. - `17:15` In professional marketing, AI serves effectively as an administrative utility and visual pitch deck mockup tool, while generative LLM copywriting consistently produces bland and ineffective output. - `17:15` Media consumption is fundamentally constrained by a daily waking ceiling of around 16 hours, making conversational chatbots a potential threat to traditional feed screen time. - `20:00` The shift toward ambient computing, wearables, and voice interfaces may reduce passive smartphone screen scrolling, though it risks creating alternative forms of social isolation. - `22:45` Automated accounts brute-force platform distribution by publishing up to 50 synthetic videos daily, monetizing user confusion by disguising AI simulations as behind-the-scenes film footage. - `25:09` Meta's Threads has fostered an intensely toxic environment due to recommendation algorithms surfacing out-of-context replies, amplified by hallucinating AI news summaries. - `25:09` Generic lifestyle influencer content is largely dead; sustainable audience growth in modern feeds requires serialized, episodic formats resembling television shifts. - `25:09` Major talent agencies like CAA are constructing likeness vaults to archive client voices and digital replicas for authorized synthetic licensing. - `30:00` Instagram distribution mechanics explicitly prioritize video reels and carousels for non-follower reach, while static feed images serve almost entirely for legacy follower retention. - `30:00` Interpersonal social media has structurally split: open feeds function as broadcast television for strangers, while actual relationship maintenance occurs privately through direct messages.
## Detailed walkthrough ### `00:00` Live in Hollywood: The Odd Lots Podcast Tackles the Creator Economy
The episode opens with the *Odd Lots* podcast hosting its first-ever live show in Los Angeles at the Vermont in Hollywood. Hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal note that being in LA demands confronting the massive, often invisible-to-traditional-media world of the influencer and creator economy. With creators amassing millions of followers on platforms like Instagram without mainstream notoriety, the hosts explore the existential crisis currently facing digital workers: what happens to creators and social media professionals when generating content becomes virtually free and effortless through generative AI?
To unpack these questions, Tracy and Joe bring out two leading commentators on internet culture and social media strategy: - **Taylor Lorenz**, technology journalist and founder of the Substack publication *User Mag*, who covers online culture, creator dynamics, tech, and policy. - **Rachel Karten**, social media consultant and author of the Substack newsletter *Link in Bio*, regarded as the premier trade publication for corporate social media practitioners and brand marketers.
When Joe kicks off the conversation by asking about the current "vibes" across social media, the immediate, blunt response from the stage is unanimous: "Terrible."
`05:00` Exploding Coke Trucks and "AI Brain": How Generative Tools Are Warping Marketing Teams
Highlighting the bizarre texture of modern online feeds, Lorenz shares an anecdote from backstage just before coming out. She admits she was briefly fooled by an absurd, hyper-viral AI video: a Coca-Cola truck overturned and exploded fountainous soda while someone tried to scoop it with a bucket, only for the next shot to reveal a crashing Mentos truck next door, launching a bystander rocketing through the sky. The caption read, "the AI videos that your mom sends you," prompting Weisenthal to joke that older internet users remember when Mentos-and-Diet-Coke videos were the only content that existed on the entire web.
Turning to the professional workplace, Weisenthal asks whether social media managers view AI as an empowering productivity augmenter or as an outright replacement. Karten explains that for marketing staff, AI is primarily arriving as an unwelcome mandate imposed from executive management. In her viral piece titled *"Does Your Boss Have AI Brain?"*, she interviewed around 100 marketers to document how managers are completely offloading their human creative judgment onto large language models:
- One social media manager spent hours crafting a nuanced, funny meme, only for their boss to feed it into Anthropic's Claude and literally ask the chatbot: *"Is this funny?"* - Another marketer discovered their supervisor would only greenlight creative concepts if they appeared to originate from Microsoft Copilot; as a result, the employee began mocking up their own original ideas inside a fake Copilot interface just to get approval. - An interviewee summarized the prevailing corporate atmosphere as "demoralizing as hell."
Karten contrasts this chaotic deployment with her past tenure at Condé Nast. When the publisher onboarded tools like Asana, the organization spent months carefully training staff and developing structured workflows. By contrast, AI adoption in marketing has been implemented with no guardrails, no shared philosophy, and zero formal training, leaving creative workers feeling stripped of their agency.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Boss AI Brain Workflow Loop accDescr: Diagram illustrating how marketing staff must bypass or appease managerial reliance on AI tools.
subgraph GroundReality ["Creative Social Media Manager"] A["Drafts organic meme or campaign"] end
subgraph ExecutiveIntervention ["'AI Brain' Management"] B{"Manager outsources gut check"} C["Asks Claude: 'Is this funny?'"] D["Only trusts ideas branded by Copilot"] end
subgraph WorkerWorkarounds ["Employee Counter-Strategy"] E["Worker fakes Copilot UI mockup"] F["Idea gets signed off"] end
A --> B B --> C B --> D D --> E E --> F ```
Addressing the pushback over whether consumers will eventually stop caring about AI-generated marketing, Karten argues that brand creative has always functioned as a proxy for operational integrity. When iconic brands like Nike invest deeply in craft, consumers interpret that effort as proof of quality. If a beloved brand—such as Chipotle or any fast-food chain—resorts to automated, synthetic imagery, audiences immediately question what shortcuts the company is taking with its physical ingredients and core product.
Lorenz adds that while consumers claim to hate AI, their behavior tells a contradictory story. On YouTube, creators routinely read AI-generated scripts to glowing comment sections praising their "brilliant analysis." Audiences generally do not mind AI content when they find it genuinely entertaining; their hostility surfaces when they feel actively duped or tricked. The panel points to the rise of bizarre viral formats like "fruit slop" and "fruit soap" (including automated soap operas like *Fruit Love Island*, depicting an orange falling in love with a carrot): users will rage against synthetic content in one post's comments, only to binge-watch AI-generated anthropomorphic produce in the very next swipe.
`10:00` Low Stakes Memes, Incumbents, and the Threat to "How-To" Content
The panel digs into the double standard audiences hold when evaluating AI-generated material. Viewers navigate a weird paradox: they give low-stakes, throwaway humor—like an AI-generated meme of fruit mimicking *Love Island*—an immediate pass because they do not care about the craft of a casual meme. Yet if a commercial brand posts an AI-generated menu or promotional asset, consumers react with fury. In short, the exact same person laughing at and texting "AI fruit slop" to their friends might simultaneously excoriate a corporation online for cutting human corners.
This tension prompts a deeper question about the broader creator ecosystem: in an AI-saturated world, does leverage accrue to incumbent creators who have already built personal trust, or will plummeting production costs spark another wave of democratization where anyone churns out content for free? The answer hinges entirely on format and genre:
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Impact of AI on Creator Archetypes accDescr: Flowchart contrasting how AI affects utility-driven how-to creators versus personal and opinion-driven creators.
subgraph Utility["Utility-Driven Content"] U1["'How-To' & Informational Content<br>(Dishwasher repair, beauty tutorials)"] U2["Easily Replaced by LLMs<br>(ChatGPT, quick troubleshooting)"] U1 --> U2 end
subgraph Parasocial["Parasocial & Point-of-View Content"] P1["Personal Life, Commentary & Point of View"] P2["High Moat & Authenticity<br>(Difficult to automate or replicate)"] P1 --> P2 end ```
Creators who rely purely on utility and instruction are the most vulnerable. Early social media democratization was heavily built on informational "how-to" formats—such as the earliest beauty and makeup tutorials on YouTube. Today, AI models are rapidly becoming superior, frictionless reference manuals. As an everyday example, one speaker shares that her own mother proudly used ChatGPT to troubleshoot and repair a broken toilet—a DIY feat she never would have expected her to pull off on her own. While utility-driven creators face obsolescence, personalities who offer raw parasocial connection, idiosyncratic opinions, or non-replicable commentary will maintain their moat.
`11:30` Mid-Roll Break: Agentic Commerce and Workplace AI
The episode cuts to sponsor messages highlighting how artificial intelligence is actively reshaping enterprise operations and commercial infrastructure: - **PayPal Open**: Explores the psychological friction in digital shopping—the split-second hesitation before hitting "Buy Now"—and outlines how PayPal is positioning its 25-year payments infrastructure for "agentic commerce," allowing businesses to deploy AI-driven discovery while retaining brand trust and customer relationships. - **ChatGPT Work**: Pitching beyond basic search engine queries toward deep task execution, highlighting Work Mode (available across Plus and Pro tiers) to coordinate across local files and apps, grinding unstructured source materials and briefs into reviewable first drafts. - **LinkedIn Advertising**: Marketers in "Dashboard Confessions" call out vanity reach metrics ("bullspend") and prioritize revenue over surface-level impressions, offering a $250 credit match. - **Dupixent (dupilumab)**: Prescription medical disclosure for adults suffering from moderate-to-severe eczema, targeting systemic inflammation sources with detailed warnings regarding potential allergic reactions, eye issues, and joint pains.
`15:00` The AI Discourse Cycle: Data Centers, Existential Risk, and Anthropomorphism
Returning to the live stage, the conversation shifts to the dizzying churn of online discourse. Internet controversy moves so fast that debates seem to expire overnight; what felt like an urgent public crisis a month ago is suddenly dismissed as old news:
> "Oh, you're still arguing about data centers? Wasn't that a July issue? That was so July."
Taylor Lorenz observes that while political consultants like Morris Cafritz argue local fights over data center infrastructure and energy grids are primed to dominate the 2026 midterm election cycle rather than 2028, public outrage shifts continuously. A key political divide exists between anti-AI camps: the environmental and civic critics upset about physical infrastructure have entirely different motives and values from the "X-risk" (existential risk) camp fixated on runaway machine intelligence. Because their goals are so misaligned, they have completely failed to build a united front.
Addressing the existential risk narrative directly, Lorenz pushes back on the panic: "First of all, it's not going to kill us. It's actually so hard to kill all humans on Earth, even if we wanted to." Drawing on a quip from a former FTC commissioner—who joked that humanity survived the Black Death when it wiped out half the population—the hosts emphasize that deadliness does not equal superior intelligence; a biological virus can decimate populations without possessing an intellect.
The real danger lies in how easily people anthropomorphize computer code: - Assigning human agency, emotions, and moral intent to software skews clear thinking. - While anthropomorphic metaphors help lay audiences grasp technical mechanics, treating software programs like living entities muddies critical policy, corporate accountability, and legal liability.
`17:15` Practical Uses in Marketing: Pitch Deck Mockups vs. Copywriting
The discussion turns to whether marketers are actually getting practical value out of AI tools, or if the technology merely produces internal nausea—such as an agency employee pitching a sharp joke only to be told by a superior, "Well, my buddy Claude doesn't think that it's funny."
Rachel Karten notes that AI's most effective role in agency environments right now is visual translation. Strategists use image and concept generators inside pitch decks to build quick mockups for executives or clients who lack the imagination to visualize an abstract idea. AI bridges the gap between a written concept and a physical campaign, helping sell a real-world activation that will ultimately be executed by human craftspeople. Conversely, both panelists express deep skepticism toward using LLMs for generative copywriting, social media post ideation, or brand captions, warning that it tends to yield bland, ineffective results.
Lorenz details her personal workflow, cautioning humorously, "Don't cancel me because people get so mad when you talk about it." She refuses to use AI for actual prose writing because expressing her own thoughts is the entire point of the craft. Instead, she treats AI strictly as an administrative utility: - Drafting basic SEO-driven descriptions and mechanical metadata - Resizing, extending, and manipulating image canvases in design tools like Canva - Handling repetitive operational tasks to save creative energy for human reporting
The segment closes by opening up a broader structural bottleneck: human attention. Even if generative tools flood feeds with limitless media, human capacity remains capped at 24 hours in a day—meaning that after eight hours of sleep, platforms are ultimately fighting over a finite ceiling of roughly 16 hours of daily scrolling.
`20:00` Chatbots vs. Feeds, Screen Time Panic, and the Ambient Computing Debate
The conversation turns to how people allocate their digital attention, raising the question of whether conversational AI is cannibalizing passive social media scrolling to the detriment of marketers and brands. Joe Weisenthal notes a personal dilemma: whenever he posts on social media, he faces an immediate barrage of insults from users saying, "this guy's an idiot" or claiming he has lost his mind. By contrast, a chatbot like Claude or ChatGPT provides a frictionless, pleasant conversation where nobody dunks on him. Taylor Lorenz and Rachel Karten push back on the equivalence, arguing that Twitter exists in a combative league of its own compared to TikTok or Instagram, where users consume feeds like television for pure entertainment. Furthermore, chatting with an AI serves a fundamentally different psychological and utilitarian function than direct-messaging a real friend.
The panel dives into an energetic debate over screen time and hardware form factors. Taylor argues that the widespread moral panic over screen time misses a structural shift: the traditional smartphone slab is destined to decline rapidly. In her view, people are increasingly shifting toward ambient computing, relying on earbuds, smart glasses, connected home appliances, and wearable voice accessories (like recently unveiled whispering pendant bands) rather than staring blankly at a glass display. If people check a physical screen less frequently, she contends, they will be sucked into algorithmic doomscrolling less often.
Joe and the panel counter with healthy skepticism about whether this ambient hardware future is genuinely liberating or simply substituting one antisocial habit for another. Looking up a tutorial to repair a dishwasher or fix a toilet on a screen previously replaced hiring a plumber and having a genuine face-to-face human interaction. Joe jokes about the absurdity of smart homes creating artificial friction, quipping that soon you will need two-factor authentication just to grab a snack: "open your refrigerator, open up your Google Auth and put in your six-digit code, and then I'm back looking at the screen."
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Ambient Computing vs Screen Feed Consumption accDescr: Diagram contrasting passive phone feed consumption with conversational AI and ambient hardware.
subgraph Feeds ["Traditional Feed Browsing"] A["Instagram & TikTok: Passive Entertainment / TV"] B["Twitter / X: Public Discourse & Conflict"] end
subgraph Chatbots ["Conversational & Ambient Alternatives"] C["AI Chatbots (Claude / ChatGPT): Safe, Frictionless Interaction"] D["Ambient Hardware: Smart Glasses, Wearables & Appliances"] end
subgraph Impact ["Audience Shift"] E["Erosion of Traditional Screen Time"] F["Isolation / Antisocial Friction"] end
A --> E B --> C C --> E D --> F ```
`22:45` AI Slop, Platform Inertia, and the Monetization of Confusion
Tracy Alloway shifts the focus to how major platforms are handling the influx of automated "AI slop" and virtually free synthetic content. This dynamic presents two divergent paths: either disillusioned users flee public feeds entirely in favor of private group chats, DMs, and community spaces like Discord, or platform algorithms must become hyper-curated engines capable of detecting and delivering users' exact tolerance for synthetic media. Taylor Lorenz argues that traditional platforms are currently stuck on their back foot and failing to adapt. She views Meta in particular as an aging 2010s dinosaur that has already passed its cultural peak, leaving Google comparatively better positioned for the next phase of internet architecture.
Rachel Karten highlights the aggressive, short-term tactics currently degrading feed quality. Automated AI accounts exploit algorithmic discovery by posting at inhuman scale—sometimes churning out 50 posts a day—treating Instagram's distribution like a slot machine until one hits the jackpot. Examining recent data on the top 20 most-viewed Instagram Reels of all time, Karten discovered that two or three of the record-holders were recent AI-generated videos. One viral clip mimicked behind-the-scenes movie footage, pretending to show a giant practical-effects wave crashing into houses on a film set. By borrowing visual cues of raw reality and "behind-the-scenes" authenticity, the creators engineered massive engagement purely by confusing the audience about whether what they were watching was real. Karten condemns this practice of "monetizing confusion," warning that while it delivers immediate viral metrics, it inflicts severe long-term damage on platform trust.
- Automated AI spam accounts flood platforms with up to 50 posts per day to brute-force algorithmic virality. - Multiple entries among the top 20 most-viewed Instagram Reels of all time are now completely AI-generated clips. - Viral synthetic videos increasingly masquerade as "proof of reality" or behind-the-scenes filmmaking footage to farm view counts from bewildered viewers.
`25:09` The Toxicity of Threads and the Formula for Modern Follower Growth
The conversation moves to Meta's text-based platform, Threads, with Tracy asking who is actually using it. Rachel admits that her own mother is an avid user, but reveals that she recently published a newsletter declaring Threads to be the single most toxic social network online today. Taylor enthusiastically agrees, claiming that "Twitter is like a wonderful fairyland compared to Threads." Because the Threads recommendation engine frequently drops users into the middle of hostile, out-of-context replies, it cultivates intense mob-like pile-ons and rapid groupthink. Compounding the chaos, Threads features AI-generated news summaries that routinely hallucinate, invent false brand drama, and present outright fabrications as fact.
Turning to actionable advice for creators looking to reach millions of followers in 2026, Rachel and Taylor explain that the traditional model of the generic lifestyle influencer—sharing mundane daily life—is effectively dead and actively provokes audience resentment. To succeed today, creators must treat their channels like serialized episodic television shows with a clear, reliable throughline: - **Serialized "TV Show" Formats**: Audiences respond to tightly themed, episodic content. Karten highlights a restaurant line cook (Gilley Cooks) who wears Meta smart glasses while preparing dinner services, racking up over 500,000 followers in two to three months simply by framing every daily video as a new episode of his shift. - **Likeness Rights and the CAA Vault**: Talent agencies are preparing for synthetic duplication. Taylor notes her reporting for *Vanity Fair* on the "CAA Vault," where Creative Artists Agency archives digital replicas of top stars' voices and likenesses so clients can license AI-generated variations of themselves—prompting Joe to joke that Bloomberg will soon license their voices to produce endless automated episodes of *Odd Lots*. - **Feed Distribution Mechanics**: Sharing guidance Instagram provided to her *Link in Bio* readership, Rachel breaks down the platform's current reach hierarchy: Carousels and Reels are specifically prioritized to be served to non-followers. Because the platform algorithm is entirely fueled by non-follower reach, content must immediately appeal to strangers rather than relying on inside jokes understood only by existing fans.
`30:00` The Architecture of Modern Feeds and the Shift to DM-Based Community
The discussion turns to the segmented mechanics of modern platforms like Instagram, where content formats serve strictly bifurcated purposes. Algorithmic discovery mechanisms now dictate that if a piece of media is "not entertaining enough," the platform simply will not surface or distribute it across the main channel or discovery feed. In this environment, static single-image posts have been relegated to reaching an account's existing legacy audience rather than capturing new reach, while true interpersonal community and authentic connection have migrated entirely into Stories and Direct Messages (DMs).
This structural shift was underscored during a conversation at Bloomberg Screentime, where Instagram head Adam Mosseri observed that the foundational "social" element of social media no longer centers on broadcasting personal milestones, such as sharing photos of one's family to an open feed. Instead, modern sociality occurs almost exclusively in private backchannels through DMing friends external content—such as memes or video clips—that reminded the sender of the recipient. The speakers note that while it feels "very unfortunate" to realize that public feeds have abandoned personal life updates in favor of passive broadcast entertainment, Mosseri’s framing is deeply "clarifying" about what connection has truly become online.
```mermaid flowchart TD accTitle: Instagram Content Segmentation Model accDescr: Diagram illustrating how platforms divide content between broad public entertainment and private social connection.
subgraph BroadReach["Public Algorithmic Broadcast"] FeedReels["Main Channel & Reels"] --> Dist["Algorithmic Reach & Entertainment"] StaticPosts["Single-Image Feed Posts"] --> CoreAudience["Legacy Existing Followers"] end
subgraph PrivateConnection["Private Social Channels"] StoriesDMs["Stories & Direct Messages"] --> ActiveDM["DMs & Meme Sharing"] ActiveDM --> TrueCommunity["Personal Community & Friendship"] end ```
- **Content bifurcation**: Main feed algorithmic surfaces prioritize raw entertainment value over social updates, while single-image static posts serve primarily as retention tools for established followers. - **Adam Mosseri's thesis**: The "social" aspect of social media has transitioned from broadcasting personal life events on public feeds to privately sending DMs and relatable memes to individual friends.
`30:35` Odd Lots Live Wrap-Up, Credits, and Commercial Announcements
Hosts Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal conclude their live Odd Lots recording session at The Vermont in Hollywood, thanking guest commentators Taylor Lorenz (founder of *User Mag*) and Rachel Karten (author of the *Link in Bio* newsletter) for their insights into how generative AI and shifting algorithmic distribution are transforming the creator economy and social media labor.
The hosts direct listeners to their respective social accounts and acknowledge the production team before promoting the daily *Odd Lots* newsletter at Bloomberg.com/oddlots and the 24/7 community Discord server. The broadcast concludes with promotional spots highlighting collegiate football quarterback Jaxson Dart's blanket collaboration with Minky Couture, as well as an announcement for the Bloomberg Tech summit in London covering scale, safety, and sovereignty in AI, presented by Salesforce alongside IDA Ireland and Schneider Electric.
- **Host & guest handles**: Tracy Alloway (`@tracyalloway`), Joe Weisenthal (`@thestalwart`), Taylor Lorenz (`@TaylorLorenz`), and Rachel Karten (`@milkcarton`). - **Production team credits**: Carmen Rodriguez (`@CarmenArman`), Dash Bennett (`@dashbot`), Kel Brooks (`@KaleBrooks`), and Kevin Lozano (`@KevinLloydLozano`). - **Commercial notes**: Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart's partnership collection with blanket company Minky Couture; Bloomberg Tech event in London on November 2–3 examining enterprise AI trade-offs with sponsors Salesforce, IDA Ireland, and Schneider Electric.
## Notable quotes > `05:00` the AI videos that your mom sends you
> `05:00` Is this funny?
> `05:00` demoralizing as hell
> `15:00` Oh, you're still arguing about data centers? Wasn't that a July issue? That was so July.
> `15:00` First of all, it's not going to kill us. It's actually so hard to kill all humans on Earth, even if we wanted to. — Taylor Lorenz
> `17:15` Well, my buddy Claude doesn't think that it's funny.
> `17:15` Don't cancel me because people get so mad when you talk about it. — Taylor Lorenz
> `20:00` this guy's an idiot
> `20:00` open your refrigerator, open up your Google Auth and put in your six-digit code, and then I'm back looking at the screen. — Joe Weisenthal
> `22:45` monetizing confusion — Rachel Karten
> `25:09` Twitter is like a wonderful fairyland compared to Threads. — Taylor Lorenz
## Mentioned Adam Mosseri, Anthropic Claude, Asana, Bloomberg, Bloomberg Screentime, CAA Vault, Canva, Carmen Rodriguez, ChatGPT, Chipotle, Condé Nast, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Dash Bennett, Dupixent, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Fruit Love Island, Gilley Cooks, Google, IDA Ireland, Instagram, Instagram Reels, Jaxson Dart, Joe Weisenthal, Kel Brooks, Kevin Lozano, LinkedIn, Link in Bio, Meta, Microsoft Copilot, Minky Couture, Morris Cafritz, Nike, Odd Lots, PayPal Open, Rachel Karten, Salesforce, Schneider Electric, Taylor Lorenz, The Vermont Hollywood, Threads, TikTok, Twitter / X, User Mag, Vanity Fair, YouTube
## Video description <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">Social media is really strange these days: Increasingly, our feeds are starting to look uncanny, as AI slop proliferates all over the Internet. And for the professionals who are tasked with making content, whether it is social media managers or creators, it has been a head-spinning time of change. In this conversation, recorded at the Vermont in Hollywood, we get a primer on social media's AI era with two veteran Internet commentators, Rachel Karten (social media consultant and the author of the Link in Bio newsletter) and Taylor Lorenz (founder of User Mag). We discuss why people are afraid to admit that they love some genres of slop, why the AI discourse is evolving so rapidly, and whether our time online is moving away from scrolling feeds to engaging with chatbots.</p> <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true">Read more:<br data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="hardBreak" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-23/us-rebukes-australia-for-plan-to-target-social-media-algorithms?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">US Rebukes Australia for Plan to Target Social Media Algorithms</a><br data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="hardBreak" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true"><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-21/meta-s-new-muse-ai-app-tops-charts-draws-strong-early-reviews?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=odd_lots&utm_content=article" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Meta’s New Muse AI App Tops Charts, Draws Strong Reviews</a></p> <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true">Only <a href="http://Bloomberg.com" data-inline-card="" data-card-data="">http://Bloomberg.com</a> subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox each week, plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots?in_source=oddlotspodcast" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots</a></p> <p data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="paragraph" data-prosemirror-node-block="true"><a href="http://bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">Subscribe to the Odd Lots Newsletter</a><br data-prosemirror-content-type="node" data-prosemirror-node-name="hardBreak" data-prosemirror-node-inline="true"><strong data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="strong">Join the conversation:</strong> <a href="https://discord.gg/oddlots" data-prosemirror-content-type="mark" data-prosemirror-mark-name="link">discord.gg/oddlots</a></p><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>
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