The Ugly Monster is sick of AI slop

The editor of The Ugly Monster was recently forced to attend a family gathering. While there, someone claimed that “some AI videos are actually kinda good”. Our editor made that someone stop their filthy lies.

AI;DR, short for “AI, didn’t read”, is The Ugly Monster’s word of the year. We have turned down almost as many submissions as we’ve accepted because people keep trying to slip one by us. Occasionally they do, but we find them out sooner than later. We’re all sorts of vigilant. And stubborn.

Below are some of The Ugly Monster’s best work related to AI slop. All the stories below either have Friend Links or are not paywalled.

Disney’s Recidivist Use of AI in ‘Wonder Man’ by anjenü

“…what happens when we win? When AI adoption is relegated to sectors that truly benefit from it, like healthcare and security? The result is good art. Hand-crafted, human, and resonant. What happens when we lose? Another empty addition to the Disney+ roster that no one will rewatch or remember.”

‘Star Trek’ Already Explored AI Psychosis by Daley W.

“This cringey episode lives in infamy, a blemish on the record of a normally admirable character, and it’s such a pity because today we face the issue of people using generative AI to recreate real people as sycophantic chatbot companions, like Geordi did.”

I Click “Show Less” on AI by Oscar

“On top of the environmental nightmare, AI-generated text, music, and images are based on stolen works. Those creators were never compensated for their work. Yeah, you can train an LMM with only content you own, but that’s just a smokescreen for the rest of that shady industry.”

AI Apes and Chimps at a Typewriter by Laura Díaz de Arce

“Despite the name, these AI tools don’t create or generate anything new. They develop patterns based on the material fed to them, often spitting up amalgamations of other people’s works.”

What ‘Peacemaker’ Season 2 Has in Common with AI Photos by anjenü

“If photographs are factual evidence of the past admissible in court, then AI is a self-curated retcon of spacetime. A hypnotic suggestion hastily assembled in the hopes it could induce a false memory where you and grief never made acquaintance.”

Generative AI is Bad and We Don’t Like It was originally published in The Ugly Monster on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Horror is art

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Here are some great, horrible movies to put you in the right mood.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — Love Letter to 80s Slashers and Queer Freedom by Brandon Lennan

“Our glimpses into the Miasma-within-Miasma dimension are as rewarding as expected, just faithful enough to be loving satire and just Jane enough to be distinct. For every camcorder anachronism and CG-heavy kill there’s a gas station kook handing out omens, wisecracking punk counsellor (Eva Victor) getting beheaded and gasping a final toke from the ground, and clueless yokel cop (Kevin McDonald) stumbling over his lines. Not to mention Little Death’s epic ode to The Burning’s raft massacre sequence, which also might accidentally be the greatest Counting Crows music video ever made.”

‘Sinners’: Why Vampires Need to be Invited Inside by Daley W.

“Vampires have to be invited in because they are bound by unspoken rules of consent. Their victim, knowingly or not, has to choose the vampire of their own free will. At the crux of the Sinners story is Sammie, torn between his preacher father’s expectations and the devilish world of blues music and juke joints as represented by his cousins.”

‘Resident Evil’ Boasts Small-Scale, Fleeting Thrills by Cian McGrath

“Resident Evil’s creature designs are constantly shifting, with so many monsters that it’s hard to make sense of the lore in this universe. The most impressive is an ever-growing conglomeration of bodies, all of which lack a head, as arms and legs and torsos sprout from the creature’s middle section. It gropes the air desperately, searching in all directions for a fresh victim. It’s wonderfully hideous, the kind of squeamish body horror that doesn’t hold back while still being tastefully deployed.”

From our friends at Worldbuilding Wednesday…The Machine As Supernatural Horror by Connlyn Sinclair

“In the initial Terminator film, Skynet is described as a group of defense department computers that were trained to fight wars autonomously. While the terminators themselves were built by Skynet, they were just minions of a monster that was disturbingly plausible with the technology in the late 20th century.”

‘Frankenstein’ is Guillermo Del Toro’s Magnum Opus by Asadullah Khan

“Victor’s lab is tangible; the cadavers are practical and morbidly beautiful, and the myriad of sci-fi steampunk-ish instruments teeter more on the real than on fantasy. You can almost touch them. On top of that, building a real 18th century arctic expedition ship splendidly sells that section of the story.”

‘Obsession’ is Lightning in a Bottle by Elvia M.

“Vacancy is the real horror lying underneath. There may not be any typical monsters you’d expect from a horror movie, but you’ll still feel all kinds of terror and dread from things that aren’t there at all — silhouettes and emptiness and anticipation. The magic isn’t what is there in front of you, but what isn’t until it makes itself known.”

‘Alien: Romulus’ Manages to Succeed Despite Relying on Its Rich Heritage by Lazar Šutilović

“…Álvarez — who also served as the scriptwriter on the film — and his longtime writing compatriot, Rodo Sayagues, pull interesting twists that spice things up a bit. These are present in both the action set pieces and the in-universe implications, and remarkably add even cosmic horror undertones of Ridley Scott’s “trilogy”, essentially connecting Romulus to the oft-overlooked legacy of 2012’s Prometheus.”

Happy Horror Movie Month! was originally published in The Ugly Monster on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dear Republican Voter,

You’re going to regret all of this someday. You’re going to regret all this cruelty and hate. You’re going to regret hurting people for not being “normal”. You’re going to regret putting your wants over everyone else’s needs.

You’re going to regret everything because it was a package deal. Low taxes. Keep ALL your guns. Stay proud of who and what you are. But when you look back, you’re going to see that the price was way too high.

Dead kids in schools. Dead trans people who just wanted to be themselves. Dead women who didn’t want to bring a child into a world that was literally on fire. Dead immigrants who had the good sense to run from masked men with guns.

I wish I could properly convey how utterly devastated you’re going to be when you look back at all the pain and fear you’re voting for now.

Maybe you’ll be driving to the bank when it happens. Maybe you’ll be in the shower. Maybe you’ll hear a song that reminds you of someone that isn’t in your life anymore. Then you’re going to remember something you did or said to someone. Or you’ll remember something from the news that happened years ago. In any case, you’re going to think about it differently.

You’re going to be shocked at what you said or did. You’ll try to explain it to yourself. You’ll make an excuse for what you did and why you did it, but you won’t be that same person anymore. Instead of blowing it off, like you’re blowing it off now, you’ll be horrified.

You will start to regret that thing you can’t take back. You’ll regret it so much you’ll seize up, put your hand over your mouth, and shake your head because you can’t believe you did or said or voted for something so cruel.

And then you’re going to cry. You’re going to experience the sort of anguish you imagine people in Hell experience. Except it won’t be someone else torturing you. It’ll just be you.

You are going to feel the sort of regret that drives people insane.

I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’ve been lied to. Some rich people that didn’t want to pay their taxes made most of it up and packaged it along with some nonsense about Libs making your kids feel bad about themselves or turning them gay.

The truth is that rich people fucked you over. Rich people worked your granddad half to death, cheated him out of the wealth his work actually created, and then told him immigrants and commies and feminists stole it. And they’re telling you the same thing.

But none of that will matter when you remember. When you remember that you voted to force terrified kids to be someone they weren’t, or voted to make it even easier for 10-year-olds to be gunned down by the thousands, you’re going to hate yourself.

That day will be the worst day of your life. You’ll remember when you called your son a faggot and threw him out of the house on his 18th birthday. You’ll remember when you told a sobbing father that his daughter’s right to live didn’t outweigh your right to own a gun. You’ll remember that you voted to make a teenage girl have a baby that was forced on her. You’ll remember you refused to wear a mask at work even though you knew someone there had cancer. You’ll remember you didn’t give that panhandler a dollar because you KNEW he was just lazy.

You’re going to remember all of the cruel, spiteful, and heartless things you did, and you’ll wonder why you didn’t realize they were wrong at the time. You’ll wish to God you could take it all back. You will wail. You will feel remorse so overwhelming, you’ll wish you were dead.

You will hate yourself. You will hate yourself for days and weeks and months and years. You’ll regret every single thoughtless and mean thing you ever did, and when someone tries to cheer you up, you’ll know that you don’t deserve to feel better. You will have earned this Hell.

But it’s not too late. You can avoid your personal Hell on Earth. All you have to do is stop. Right now. Call your son. Stop listening to radio shows that make you nothing but angry. Realize that most people’s “agenda” is to go to work and school without getting shot.

Stop hurting people because you think you’re the good guy. Just stop, because out-hurting the other side makes you a monster. I know you can’t see it now but you will, and you will remember that someone, probably lots of someones, tried to warn you.

Stop hurting people.

This was based on an old Twitter threat.

Happy Midterm Elections!

The U.S. midterm elections are just over two months away. The Ugly Monster formally endorses any and all candidates who are furthest to the economic or material left in their respective races — unless they did something bad.

Also, all art and entertainment is political. If you don’t agree, keep reading. All the stories below either have Friend Links or they’re not paywalled.

‘Top Gun’ and the Mythology of American Imperialism by Lady Horatia

“…the enemy is very clearly a War-on-Terror, post-Bush adversary. How can I tell? Because the threat that Maverick and crew is tasked with destroying is a uranium enrichment plant in an unnamed country.”

The Radical Political Origins of ‘Spartacus’ by Steven Klett

“Due to Marx’s praise, Marxists — especially orthodox Marxists — would take Spartacus’s name and story as a symbol of a heroic revolutionary proletariat.”

‘Mussolini: Son of the Century’ and How To Talk About History by Giulia Picciau

“This idea is clear since the opening beats of the series. The same person who we’re taught to regard as the personification of evil is portrayed as a pathetic coward whose only talent is exploiting people for his own schemes. A power-hungry little man who just wants to be revered. It doesn’t matter if it’s through love or fear, he either doesn’t know the difference or doesn’t care.”

From our friends at Worldbuilding Wednesday…

Decolonizing speculative fiction: 5 must-read Black worldbuilders by Daley W.

“Legendborn and it’s sequel Bloodmarked were huge YA hits, an urban fantasy series that explores King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the lasting impact of colonization and chattel slavery. Deonn manages to tackle all this through excellent worldbuilding and the lens of her own experience as a Black woman in America.”

WTF is Art? by Zach Fernandez

“I often see those here and in other online spaces expressing their distaste that media and art have become politicised. “I hate being bashed over the head with a consciously intended message” is expressed, suggesting that modern movies, and art in general, are falling further into sermons, forcing a specific world view and teetering on the edge of propaganda. But my question is, when has art not been propaganda?”

Expiring Utopia: Why Disney Fails the X-Men by anjenü

“Coded in the DNA of X-Men is a story about tolerance and progressiveness. From them, we can learn that though the world would wish to push us back and lull us into complacency, we must mutate society’s status quo into something better.”

Nazis are Bad — ‘Eat the Reich’ by Oscar

“Eat the Reich is a tabletop roleplaying game about exsanguinating nazis. It’s World War II and you’re a bunch of vampires dropped into nazi-occupied Paris on a mission to kill Hitler. Players apply boatloads of occult power and ultraviolence at, onto, into, and through every fascist that gets in your way.”

All Media is Political, Whether You Like It or Not was originally published in The Ugly Monster on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.