Medium, a popular online publishing platform, is currently confronting the rising challenge of AI-generated content. This issue has intensified as AI technologies become more pervasive, raising concerns about the authenticity and quality of online writing. Discussions on this topic emerged in recent months, with differing opinions among writers and editors on the platform.

Eric Pierce, founder of Medium's largest pop culture publication, Fanfare, expresses gratitude for Medium's approach, highlighting the platform's human-curated Boost program. Pierce emphasizes how this program efficiently showcases high-quality human writing: "I can't recall encountering any AI-generated pieces on Medium recently," he notes, praising Medium as a refuge amid a chaotic digital landscape.

Conversely, other contributors like content marketing writer Marcus Musick report a noticeable presence of AI-generated articles on Medium, notably one article speculated to have gone viral due to its likely AI origin, garnering over 13,500 "claps". Musick, who often acts as an editor, claims to reject about 80 percent of contributing submissions monthly due to suspicions of AI use. He critiques AI detectors as "useless," trusting his editorial judgment instead.

The proliferation of AI-produced content on Medium poses significant moderation challenges akin to those faced widely across the internet. As AI accelerates these issues, similar to the longstanding impact of click farms, it equips SEO enthusiasts with the means to revive dormant media sites inundating them with low-quality AI-generated content. This trend has spurred a surge in YouTube tutorials on creating profitable "AI slop" empires on various platforms, including Medium.

Jonathan Bailey, a consultant on plagiarism, describes Medium's predicament as reflective of the broader internet's condition, where AI content proliferates rapidly. He suggests existing tools like spam filters and human moderators remain the most effective defenses against AI content inundation.

Ev Williams, CEO of Medium, argues for focusing on amplifying quality writing and limiting exposure to substandard content rather than attempting an outright ban on AI-generated material. This pragmatic stance might represent a savvy moderation policy in an era where differentiating human-created work from machine-generated content becomes increasingly difficult.

Such scenarios hint at the potential realization of the "Dead Internet Theory"—a notion once seen as a fringe conspiracy. This theory proposes a future where the internet is largely devoid of authentic human interaction, replaced by AI-generated content. As generative AI becomes ubiquitous, sustaining platforms inundated with AI-written pieces could obscure genuine human writings, challenging platforms like Medium to adapt and maintain a balanced content ecosystem.

For further context, read the original coverage from Wired.