"All Eyes on Rafah"'s virality; R.I.P. Coveteur; The new generation of online curators.

Finite Scroll #15

Hey buds! Sorry for being a day late on this lol, but things have been a bit busy for me, so here's a special Saturday edition of "Finite Scroll."

The AI-generated "All Eyes on Rafah" Instagram template has gone viral with 45 million+ shares, leading to a surge in AI-generated images about Israel's attack on Rafah. Authentic pictures and videos of the situation in Gaza are often hidden by social media content filters (thanks, algorithms), which makes the presence of and popularity/trend-jacking aspects of AI-generated viral imagery even more interesting as a criticism of and signifier for our present "Wild West" of AI crud.

Just last month, Meta rolled out a policy about transparency in labeling "made with AI" content, which tries to identify any content that contains "industry-standard signals that AI generated it" and labeling it as "Made with AI." Everyone's mileage may vary on that labeling system, as it's already shown to be pretty squishy and not universally applied.

Anyway, have fun clicking around and reading some links I saw this week that I couldn't get off my mind. ✨

You can read any/all of these today, over the weekend, or treat them as orphaned tabs you open in the background, only to come back to close in a few days. 🤳

• Her A.I. arm.
• The new generation of online culture curators.
• The WNBA’s meteoric rise in popularity, in one chart.
• An 81-year-old 'serial slingshot shooter' is arrested after decade of mischief.
• Internet sleuths finally find origin of 'The Backrooms' creepypasta image.
• The last kid in ninth grade without an iPhone.
• What AI thinks a beautiful woman looks like.
• Instagram is training AI on your data. It’s nearly impossible to opt out.
• Sole copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ will be played publicly for the first time.
• Major League Baseball to add Negro Leagues stats to official records.
• How a 4-hour video about Disney’s failed ‘Star Wars’ hotel took over the internet.
• How Mexico’s cartels infiltrated the tortilla business.
• Your favorite brand no longer cares about being woke.
• Google scales back AI search answers after it told users to eat glue.
• Beauty publisher Coveteur shutters months after brand refresh.
• “All eyes on Rafah’s” virality creates market for AI spam about Palestine.

Let me know what you're reading or checking out this week or if you're enjoying this newsletter.

And, if you've gotten this far, a simple favor from me: send Finite Scroll to a friend (or seven) who'd benefit from subscribing. 🫡