NEW YORK — If a strange photo has recently stopped you in your tracks while scrolling your Facebook feed, you’re not alone.
Users who once came to Facebook to connect with friends and family are increasingly complaining of random, spammy, junk content — much of it apparently generated by artificial intelligence — showing up in their feeds.
Sometimes it’s obviously fake, AI-generated images, like the now-infamous “Shrimp Jesus.” Other times, it’s old posts from real creators that look like they’re being reshared by bot accounts for engagement. In some cases, it’s pages sharing streams of seemingly benign but random content — memes or movie clips, shared every few hours.
Facebook users have complained of an increase in AI-generated spam content on the platform, as new artificial intelligence and other tools make it easier than ever to generate large numbers of fake images.
But the spam is more than just an annoyance; it can also be weaponized. Some spam pages appear designed to …