AI has promised to be something truly revolutionary. As well break throughs in science and productivity, it now poses an existential threat to the creative industries. Enabling the easy generation of music, art, and literature, allowing for AI content to flood into every part of our lives. But there is now a huge pushback against AI, people don’t like AI and AI-created art, and this could actually be an opportunity for classical music?
The thing is, people really don’t like the art that AI makes, especially when they know it is AI. Whether is music, films, books, or ever-growing AI slop on social media, people are pushing back. There are plenty of articles and research over the last few years. A recent Gallup Poll showed that more Americans believe that AI will do more harm than good and that this number is increasing. It also showed that the correlation between familiarity with AI and negative perception of AI, and that negativity is especially pronounced in young people. We’re also seeing that listeners are liking AI music less and less. Then there is the significant backlash to AI datacentres adding to how unpopular it is. But we are now starting to see the impact of all of this negative feeling.
OpenAI launched its own AI-only content platform Sora in September 2025, allowing users to create AI content and post it instantly. It proved an instant hit, becoming one of the most popular app launches of all time, reaching 1 million downloads in just 5 days. But after the initial curiosity and novelty had worn off, the app then tanked and was shut down 6 months later. It turned out people didn’t want AI content. Meta had to pull its AI image creation tool that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram accounts after less than a week.
It doesn’t just stop at a dedicated AI platform though. We see AI slop flooding everywhere, and it’s so unpopular that the platforms are having to take action. It’s got so bad on LinkedIn that a few weeks after AI detector Pangram determined that 41% of the long-form posts are fully AI-generated, they introduced a new “seems like AI slop button”. This was then used over 1 million times in the first few weeks. Substack has added a tool that detects AI-generated content to combat AI slop. On the flip, Meta had to pull its AI image creation tool that allowed users to generate images using public Instagram accounts after less than a week.
There’s even been pushback to AI in the world of marketing, with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s faced fierce criticism for AI, with McDonald’s even pulling their advert. Even local shops receive backlash for using AI-created posters.