In this edition
Today in Ads That Have to Confess
Pennsylvania will require labels on AI-generated ads Open on the actual mechanics, not the signing ceremony: Governor Shapiro has signed a law that covers stills, video, audio and text, and the disclosure has to match the format. Land on the audio case — the cloned voice disclosing its own cloning, in the cloned voice. Abby frames it as the first thing in months that treats an ordinary person watching a commercial as someone worth telling the truth to. Boyd will not fight the principle, he will fight the threshold: who decides what counts as "significantly modified" when a colour grade, a stock photo and a voice clone are all the same button now, and who in Harrisburg is watching every ad break in the state to check. Do not overstate the reach — this is one state, there is no national rule, and nobody has yet tested what a penalty looks like. Finish on the honest question: does a label change anyone's mind, or do we just get used to reading "AI-generated" the way we got used to "results not typical".
The Verge — AI
Meanwhile
Behind the Scenes, Meta’s Board Is Battling With Mark Zuckerberg Over His Out-of-Control AI Spending
Futurism
The Camera That Loved a Bald Head
A Scottish soccer team installed an automated AI camera to follow the ball, only for the broadcast to spend ninety minutes staring at a linesman's shiny bald head. Boyd frames first and flatly — not as a hero story, as a paperwork story. Weird Al doesn't have to ask Michael Jackson for permission; parody is protected. He asks anyway. That's the detail to land on: a legal courtesy nobody made him observe, held for four decades, versus a product built on not asking at all. Then the timing — one week out, with a set presumably already booked. Abby will want to make him a saint; let Boyd undercut by noting it's also the single most on-brand decision available to him, and it cost him real money either way. This is the one both of them actually like, so let them like it — no manufactured argument. Do not claim he said anything about the company beyond the scraping objection, and do not speculate about the size of the fee.
Gizmodo
Slop, or Not?
best character ai game with consent and age verification - 小豆島町 Boyd reads the headline deadpan, exactly as it appears, including the town. Note the two facts: it is keyword-stuffed English with a Japanese municipal attribution, and it reached a curated news feed anyway. Abby's one defence — somewhere behind this there may be a real page about a real thing — is the straight line. Verdict: slop, and high confidence, because it is not even trying to be a sentence.
AI in music, film and games
Something Useful
Here are the top AI agents that can live in your text messages Abby gives the practical version first: no app to install, no new account to remember, you text a number and it answers — which is genuinely the lowest bar any of this has cleared, and that is the appeal. Land on the family ones: a helper in the group chat is one bad group-add away from being in a thread it has no business reading. Boyd's note, cold and short: every one of these is a product with a server, and the price of convenience is that your messages are now somebody's training-shaped asset — check what it retains before you add it to a thread with anything real in it. End on the test a listener can run tonight: give it one boring task, a flight time or a shopping list, and see whether it is faster than just doing it yourself.
TechCrunch — AI
Something Weird
Former Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer was asked by a school teacher for three nice words about her daughter, so she had an AI scan her photo library and pick them out. Cold open, no runway — the teacher's question, then what she did, then stop. The detail that does the work is that the source material was her own camera roll: the machine was shown thousands of pictures of the child and asked to summarise her. Boyd delivers it flat; this is where the pause belongs. Abby gets one line of defence — she probably had three hundred unread emails and meant it warmly — and should not win it. Do not go after the daughter, and do not moralise about parenting; the facts are funnier unattended.
Mint
Tomorrow
The UK is investing $134 million into an AI Biosecurity Lab
Engadget
Transcript
0:07 Cold Open
AbbyWelcome to The Daily Slop Show.
BoydWhere nothing we say becomes the truth.
AbbyBoyd, a robot camera at a Scottish football match spent ninety minutes filming a man's head—
Boyd[jumping in] —because it thought the head was the ball. [snappy] Best thing to happen to that sport in years.
Abby[disbelief] It's a tragedy! People watched that!
Boyd[snappy] They got ninety minutes of a bald man. [short pause] That's value. [statement] Anyway. Pennsylvania. Start there.
0:32 Today in Ads That Have to Confess
Abby[excited] Right — today in ads that have to confess. Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Artificial Intelligence Deceptive Advertising Act on Thursday, and any ad that's been, quote, significantly modified or generated by artificial intelligence has to say so. Stills, video, audio, text. [statement] And the bit I love — the label has to be in the same format as the ad. Over to you, Boyd. Tell me that's not great.
Boyd[thoughtful] Hm. [short pause] Same format. So a radio spot read by a cloned voice gets disclosed... by the cloned voice.
Abby[laughs] Yes!
Boyd[snappy] The fake man tells you he's fake. In his own fake voice. [short pause] Fifteen-second ad, three seconds of which is an apology.
AbbyThree seconds of honesty in a medium that has never offered any! This is the first thing in months that treats a person watching a commercial like somebody worth telling the truth to—
Boyd[cut in] —who decides significantly?
Abby...Meaning?
Boyd[snappy] Colour grade. Stock photo. Voice clone. Same button now, three menu items apart. [suspicious] So where's the line, and who in Harrisburg is sitting through every ad break in the state checking?
AbbySomebody complains, somebody looks. That's how every advertising rule has ever worked.
Boyd[statement] Sure. It's one state. There's no national version of this, and nobody's been penalised yet, so nobody knows what it feels like when it happens.
Abby[short pause] Okay, but honestly my worry isn't the penalty. [thoughtful] It's that we just... get used to it. Like results not typical. You stop reading it by March.
Boyd[snappy] You stop reading it by February. [short pause] Still better than nothing.
Abby[surprised] Was that support?
Boyd[statement] It was adjacent to support. Moving on.
2:33 Meanwhile
AbbyMeanwhile. Futurism: "Behind the Scenes, Meta's Board Is Battling With Mark Zuckerberg Over His Out-of-Control AI Spending."
2:47 The Camera That Loved a Bald Head
Boyd[snappy] Second feature. The camera that loved a bald head. A Scottish football club installed one of those automated systems — no operator, the software finds the ball, the camera follows it.
AbbyWhich is lovely. Cheap, clever, no one has to stand in the cold.
Boyd[snappy] The model could not tell the difference between the ball and the stadium floodlights reflecting off a linesman's head.
Abby[gasps] No.
Boyd[statement] Ninety minutes. [short pause] Of a head.
Abby[laughs] The entire match?!
BoydThat's Gizmodo — the broadcast spent the game on the official. [short pause] And look, I want to be fair to the camera. It was told: find the round bright thing. [loud] It found the roundest, brightest thing in that stadium—
Abby[jumping in] —which was a man.
BoydIt did the job perfectly. It just did it to a person.
AbbySomebody's dad at home going, the ball's in the top corner, why are we looking at Graham.
Boyd[snappy] I don't know that he's called Graham.
Abby[statement] He's called Graham. And the bit that gets me is nobody could stop it. There's no one in a van to nudge the thing—
Boyd[cut in] —that's the saving. That's the whole pitch. You remove the man in the van. [short pause] And the man in the van was the part that knew what a head was.
4:07 Slop, or Not?
Boyd[snappy] Slop, or not?
AbbySlop or not!
Boyd[statement] Today's item is a genuine headline from a curated feed about AI in music, film and games. Here it is, word for word. [snappy] "Best character AI game with consent and age verification — Shodoshima-cho."
Abby[disbelief] The... what, sorry?
Boyd[snappy] A town. On the Seto Inland Sea. Keyword soup in English, credited to a Japanese municipality.
AbbyOkay, one defence — somewhere behind that there might be a real page about a real thing—
Boyd[cut in] —there might. It still reached a news feed. [short pause] Verdict: slop. High confidence. It isn't even trying to be a sentence.
4:52 Something Useful
Abby[excited] Something Useful! TechCrunch has rounded up the AI agents that live inside your text messages — general assistants, plus ones built for families, travel and work. And here's why I care, Boyd: no app, no download, no new account. [statement] You text a number and it answers. That is the lowest bar any of this has ever cleared.
Boyd[suspicious] And it's in the room.
AbbyIt's in the — yes. That's the catch. Put one in a family group chat and you're one bad group-add from a thread it has no business reading. And the family ones specifically, the thing about them is — [short pause] hang on, I had this. Yes. Christmas. You will be arguing with your mother about Christmas in front of a bot.
Boyd[snappy] Every one of these is a product with a server behind it. Your messages become somebody's asset. [statement] Check what it keeps before you let it near a thread with anything real in it.
AbbyFair. So, tonight's test — give it one boring job. A flight time. A shopping list. See whether it's actually faster than doing it yourself.
Boyd[snappy] And if it isn't—
Abby[jumping in] —then it's a guest who doesn't do the dishes.
6:08 Something Weird
Boyd[snappy] Something Weird. A school teacher asked Marissa Mayer — former chief executive of Yahoo — for three nice words about her own daughter.
AbbyThat's the easiest question a parent will ever—
Boyd[cut in] —she had an AI scan her photo library and pick them out.
Abby[disbelief] Her camera roll?
Boyd[statement] Thousands of pictures of the child, handed to an image analyser. Summarise. [long pause] Three words. She has met her.
Abby[laughs] Boyd.
AbbyOkay, in fairness — three hundred unread emails, teacher waiting, she probably meant it warmly—
Boyd[cut in] —Mint says she was mocked fairly widely, and I don't need to add to that. [short pause] I'd only note the machine was given more evidence about that child than most parents could assemble, and the job was still three adjectives.
7:04 Tomorrow
AbbyTomorrow — Britain's just put a hundred and thirty-four million dollars into a lab whose job is spotting an engineered pathogen before any human notices one. Nobody's said yet who checks its homework.
Boyd[snappy] We'll ask.
AbbyWe're The Daily Slop Show.
BoydNone of this becomes true just because we said it. See you tomorrow.
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