Nadja Spiegelman

I'm Nadja Spiegelman, and I'm a culture editor for New York Times Opinion.

The head of Instagram, Adam Masseri, ended 2025 with a provocative post about authenticity and AI, saying, we're going to move from assuming what we're seeing is real by default to starting with skepticism.

I'd say that moment is already here, and it's unsettling.

On YouTube, more than 20% of videos shown to newer users are AI-generated.

Merriam-Webster declared, slop was 2025's word of the year, and it's not going anywhere in 2026.

To talk about how all this AI slop is changing our relationship to the internet, I am joined by columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom and creative consultant Emily Keegan.

Hi.

Hi.

And to start, I want to know, for each of you, when was the first time that you were engaging with something online, thinking it was real, and then realized that it was AI?

Yeah, what about for you, Emily?

Do you have a moment?

Also, you're embarrassed, I think, is one of the feelings.

Well, how else did it make you feel?

Yeah, I was embarrassed because I'm a photo editor.

Yeah, and of course, the scariest element of all of this isn't just when things that are funny are too funny, but the manipulation of these hugely consequential world events and our ability to trust that what we're seeing in the news is actually news.

Like those fake images of Maduro's capture in Venezuela, like people using AI to try to identify the ICE agent who shot at a civilian in Minneapolis.

I mean, Tressie, do you think people are getting more savvy or are you worried about this breakdown in trust?

Yeah, I mean, I agree.

If we can't even agree on how we interpret real images.

And what's so interesting about this Minnesota case is that it also depends on which of these images you're looking at.