AI melodramas are eating X — and the creators are getting rich

Viral tales of good triumphing over evil are racking up millions of views on X. Almost all of them are AI-generated clickbait.

They started as a joke — overwrought stories about a single mom's car being towed, a dog rescuing a child, a bodega owner fighting the corrupt landlord — told in that breathless, moralizing tone that makes you want to share. Then they became an industry. Creators are pumping them out by the dozen, posting three or four a day, riding the algorithm for ad revenue and platform payouts.

The audience is buying it. The engagement is real. The content is not. What we're watching is the birth of a new kind of factory: stories manufactured to feel like they matter, optimized for the scroll, monetized by the view.

Why this matters for us: the same pattern is coming for our news — AI slop masquerading as reporting, and the people making it are the ones getting paid while the real voices get pushed down.