AI Slop and Microtargeting. Why You Should NOT LIKE the Bread Horse

illustration: DALL-E

Social media stopped being a place of spontaneous interactions and authentic content a long time ago. Today, it is a battlefield for user attention, with algorithms, data, and artificial intelligence as weapons. AI slop, a flood of low-quality, mass-generated content, has become the new reality of social platforms. The so-called Bread Horse, whose original and variations have been seen by almost everyone, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Microtargeting: The Art of Persuasion or Manipulation?

Microtargeting involves precisely tailoring content to specific recipients. Advertisers and politicians can use it to reach narrowly defined groups with messages perfectly suited to their views, preferences, and emotions. Artificial intelligence enables this on an unprecedented scale.

How does it work? Algorithms analyze our online behavior - likes, comments, clicks, search history -and then serve us content most likely to provoke a reaction. In theory, this sounds like a marketer`s dream. In practice? It depends on who uses this technology and for what purpose.

Every activity you engage in online - likes, clicks, comments, search history, time spent on a post -leaves a digital footprint. These data points are analyzed by algorithms that create your psychological and behavioral profile.


Based on this, advertisers, companies, and politicians can target you with hyper-personalized content that has the highest chance of capturing your interest. What kind of data is used?

• Demographics - age, gender, location.
• Interests - based on likes and followed pages.
• Online behavior - what content you react to, how long you view it.
• Purchase history - what you buy online and offline (yes, offline too—through loyalty programs).
• Opinions and emotions – which political or social posts you share.

Each of these elements helps create your consumer profile, which can be used to match content that most resonates with you.

Why Is Microtargeting Used?

Firstly: To Sell Products and Services. Companies want you to buy their products, but instead of bombarding everyone with the same ad, they prefer to show you something that truly interests you.

• If you`re into sports, you`ll see ads for sportswear.
• If you recently searched for a hotel, you`ll get travel offers.
• If you often like healthy eating posts, you`ll see meal plan ads.
• If you like the Bread Horse, you`ll get more Bread Horses. And other bread creatures.

This makes advertisements more effective, saving companies money by not displaying them to random people.



Another, less neutral area is politics and public opinion manipulation. This is the most controversial aspect of microtargeting. It can be used to influence public opinion and election outcomes.

• In the USA in 2016, Donald Trump`s campaign used microtargeting to send different messages to different groups. Undecided voters received emotional content meant to sway them towards Trump.
• Brexit - Proponents of the UK leaving the EU used microtargeting to amplify fears about immigration among conservative voters.

Political microtargeting allows narratives to be tailored to each audience separately, often manipulating their emotions.

Mass Content Generation and Emotional Automation

AI can generate hundreds of thousands of posts, memes, and articles in the time it takes a human to craft a decent headline. AI slop is the result of this mass production - tons of low-quality content with the sole purpose of capturing clicks.

Companies and marketing agencies can use this to reach every audience segment individually, offering perfectly tailored messages. Sounds great? Until you realize that most of these messages are worthless, repetitive, and created only to keep us engaged on social media.

Algorithms not only analyze our behavior but also learn to speak our language. AI can adapt communication style and tone to different demographic groups. Teenagers receive casual, meme-filled content, professionals get serious reports and analyses, while older users see emotional nostalgia-driven stories.

Sounds good? Maybe. But what if AI starts manipulating users’ emotions to elicit extreme reactions? It’s no coincidence that content evoking fear, anger, or excitement gets the most engagement.

Deepfake, Fake News, and Controlled Discussions

Microtargeting goes even further. AI can generate not only articles but also deepfakes - fake images and recordings that appear real. It can also create automated comments and reviews that seem authentic but are part of a planned campaign.

Readers believe they are engaging in an authentic discussion, unaware that some participants are bots driving a chosen narrative. This is not just advertising anymore but a strategy to shape public opinion.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok have long optimized their algorithms to maximize engagement. AI-generated content is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from human-created content. Where does personalization end and manipulation begin?

Can anything be done? Yes. But only if users, platforms, and regulators start taking this issue seriously. For now, in the age of AI slop, algorithms decide what we read, believe, and how we perceive the world.

The question is: who will learn faster - us or them?