Meta has unveiled Vibes, a new section within its Meta AI assistant where users can view and generate short videos created automatically by artificial intelligence, in a format reminiscent of TikTok or Reels. To showcase its capabilities, the company displayed a cat kneading dough and the image of someone taking a selfie in ancient Egypt. The public’s response was overwhelmingly negative, accusing Meta of flooding its own platform with “AI slop,” a term that has come to describe synthetic content perceived as cheap, hollow, and devoid of authenticity. The irony was not lost: only months earlier, the company had urged its creators to focus on original storytelling. The impression left is that, rather than aligning with its users, Meta bows to the weight of competition.

The launch coincides with a major reorganization of Meta’s AI division, backed by more than $100 million in investments directed toward startup partnerships and the new Meta Superintelligence Labs. The ambition is to build an integrated ecosystem linking Meta AI seamlessly with devices such as the Ray-Ban smart glasses. Yet the backlash speaks to a broader climate of skepticism toward artificial intelligence, which many still see as failing to add genuine value to everyday digital life. For this majority, the idea of generating a video from a text prompt may seem novel, but it falls short against the enduring desire for authenticity—whether in family photographs, spontaneous exchanges among friends, or the expectation that what circulates on social platforms maintains some connection to reality.