Behind the “AI slop”: exploring the AI-generated viral short video production in China
As generative AI becomes embedded in platform-based cultural production, new forms of creative labour are emerging that challenge established understandings of what it means to be a “creator.” This article examines AI slop creators in China, a group that uses generative tools to benchmark viral content, test formats, operate matrix account systems, and formalise production, transforming virality from an unpredictable outcome into an object of systematic management. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2023 and 2025 in China, this study shows AI enables a cohort of “Internet entrepreneurs” to enter cultural production, driven by a “money hustling culture” that encourages formerly idle and low-skilled individuals to pursue rapid monetisation. The findings suggest that AI slop creators organise production less around authorship, identity and aspiration, and more around operational mastery, strategic disposability, and algorithmic opportunism. Rather than cultivating personal brands, they prioritise speed, scale and adaptability, pointing toward a post-creator mode of cultural labour in contemporary platform economies.