Gen Alpha turns 'that's so AI' into insult for cheap or fake

The Guardian is reporting that "That's AI!" has become the year's schoolyard put-down of choice, applied to anything "inauthentic, unbelievable, cheap, or of dubious value." Knock-off merchandise, exaggerated claims, anything that looks superficially convincing without being worth much.

The column frames the attitude plainly in its standfirst. "The year's most popular slang," it says, reveals what young people think about artificial intelligence, "and it's not positive."

The piece is short, not a survey, so its reach is anecdotal. Two of the researchers we track picked up the link. The signal is small but consistent with a broader complaint about mass-produced AI content: the first cohort growing up with generative output is treating "AI" itself as shorthand for shoddy.