New York
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Abigail Wendling, 23, makes use of Pinterest to curate all the things in her life, from recipes to wallpapers. At least till she noticed a one-eyed cat when trying to find a wallpaper. In one other occasion, a seek for wholesome recipes turned up a puzzling picture displaying a slice of cooked rooster with seasonings sprinkled inside it.
These posts had been created by generative AI, which is rapidly overtaking the photo-first platform. Pinterest, like different social media platforms, has grappled with a flood of AI slop because the launch of ChatGPT’s Sora video generation tool in 2024. The firm has taken proactive steps to curb the content material for customers who don’t need it.
But the presence of generative AI has struck a chord with Pinterest’s artistic group, with customers telling NCS that they really feel unheard as the corporate’s C-Suite goes all in on the burgeoning know-how.
“It makes me want to put my phone down and do something else,” mentioned Wendling, who additionally makes use of Instagram and TikTok. “I would say Pinterest has the most AI-generated photos and videos out of every social media app I’m using right now … I have to look over everything with a microscope now.”
Diving headfirst into AI has been a precedence for Pinterest CEO Bill Ready, who took over the corporate in 2022. The former Venmo and Braintree chief has rebranded Pinterest “from a platform of window shopping” to “an AI-powered visual-first shopping assistant” in its newest earnings name this month. And it’s not alone: Pinterest joins Google, OpenAI and Amazon in a push to revamp the online shopping experience with AI.
Pinterest logged 600 million world month-to-month energetic customers, half of that are Gen Z and many of whom use it for shopping inspiration. Its third-quarter income just lately grew 17% year-over-year to $1 billion.
Artificial intelligence, a know-how that Silicon Valley is racing to adapt and monetize, is at “the heart of the Pinterest experience,” he mentioned.
What which means for Pinterest customers is the stress of making an attempt to navigate AI slop, extra commercials and fewer content material they need to see on the platform, customers advised NCS.
“I want to see art that a human being has put time and effort into, not some gorge spit out by someone who typed a few words into an image generator,” Amber Thurman, a 41-year-old Pinterest consumer from Illinois, mentioned to NCS.
Over the previous 12 months, Pinterest has responded to consumer complaints. It rolled out a “tuner” last month to adjust how much AI content users need to see and was an early adoptor in labeling Gen AI images on its platform earlier this 12 months.
“While many people enjoy GenAI content on Pinterest, we know some want to see less of it,” a Pinterest spokesperson mentioned in an electronic mail to NCS, including: “Pinterest prioritizes high-quality content and what is inspirational to our users – whether it’s AI-generated or not.”
However, Pinterest customers who spoke to NCS mentioned they now not acknowledge the app they signed up for and argue that the platform hasn’t saved up with the day by day flood of AI content material. The instruments to restrict AI, they argue, aren’t sufficient.
“There’s not a precise ability for any platform to catch 100% of what is AI-generated,” Ready mentioned within the earnings name.
Pinterest as soon as served as a haven from fast-talking commentary on TikTok, life updates from former classmates on Instagram and family members arguing over politics on Facebook.
Founder Ben Silbermann told NCS in 2019 that the platform’s major objective was to encourage customers. Users curated temper boards and pinned cookie recipes. Creatives and artists flocked to the app to discover real-life design inspiration.
But in 2025, tech giants are racing to capitalize on a know-how that some have referred to as as impactful because the smartphone or the web itself. And that features discovering new methods to monetize. AI.Meta, for instance, will quickly begin utilizing consumer conversations with its AI assistant to inform focused adverts.
For Pinterest, its future hinges on AI-powered purchasing. Its algorithm pinpoints merchandise for customers primarily based on their searches within the app.
In its newest quarter, the variety of folks clicking on advertiser hyperlinks grew by 40% in contrast to the 12 months earlier than and has elevated by greater than 5 occasions within the final three years, in accordance to earnings experiences. The firm is doubling down on that momentum by introducing extra AI options, such as a shopping assistant users can converse with that acts as “a best friend,” the corporate mentioned.
However, some long-time customers usually are not shopping for Pinterest as a purchasing advert.
Hailey Cole, a 31-year-old artistic director from California, started utilizing Pinterest’s competitor Cosmos for design inspiration just lately. She mentioned she’s by no means bought something from the platform and is nervous that Pinterest’s AI content material could be stealing mental property, as she mentioned it occurred to her. Pinterest’s policy states it would take down accounts of those that repeatedly infringe on copyright or mental property.
“I’ve heard the CEO say (Pinterest is a shopping app); I don’t know where he came up with that… I think that’s him more just envisioning or manifesting,” Cole mentioned.
Wendling mentioned she worries about authenticity on Pinterest. With the sheer quantity of pretend content material on the platform, even when she sees one thing she likes, she mentioned she would go to one other web site and purchase it.
Users can have to “live with both” slop and new know-how as corporations work to monetize the know-how, Jose Marichal, a professor of political science at California Lutheran University, advised NCS.
Pinterest’s leaders definitely are.
Over time, AI will observe an identical trajectory to Photoshop, Ready mentioned. “Almost every piece of content you see will have been at a minimum edited by AI in some form or another.”
But that method may jeopardize the genuine really feel that drives customers to the platform within the first place.
AI-generated posts typically lead to off-platform web sites that revenue off affiliate marketing online, Casey Fiesler, affiliate professor of knowledge science on the University of Colorado Boulder, advised NCS.
For instance, one of many first search outcomes for “chocolate chip cookie recipe” on Pinterest led to a photograph of the dessert. The publish linked to a distinct web site that was riddled with adverts and had an AI-generated picture of a chef. The recipe itself matched nearly precisely to a ChatGPT question asking for “the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever.”
On an algorithm-driven social media web site, the one factor that customers can management is their very own engagement with AI content material. Even leaving a hate remark or sending it to a buddy as a joke can sign to the algorithm that you really want to see extra of that content material, Fiesler mentioned.
Media literacy is additionally extra essential than ever as customers will want to sniff out slop on their very own.
“These platforms are looking to gain short-term metrics, but they are degrading user experience and long-term trust,” mentioned Tony Sampson, senior educational on the University of Essex.
So far, the customers that spoke to NCS have been reducing down on their Pinterest utilization. While some are transferring to new apps like Cosmos, others are discovering themselves again on older websites like Tumblr.
“For something like Pinterest in particular, I imagine it makes people a little sad,” Fiesler mentioned. “They used to see a lot of human-created content that they found inspiring, and now it’s just a lot of very non-human, perhaps not inspiring content.”