2026-07-23 19:31 UTCIn-site rewrite4 min readUpdated: 2026-07-23 19:43 UTC

AI has ruined cute animal videos

AI-generated animal videos seem sweet until you realize the joy, like the animal, was never real. The article explores how AI content erodes authenticity, making users suspicious and cynical, and potentially serving as a gateway to more harmful misinformation.

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Thomas Germain

BBC/ Serenity Strull/ Getty Images

(Credit: BBC/ Serenity Strull/ Getty Images)

AI-generated animal videos are sweet, until you realise the joy, like the animal, was never really there.

Cats built the internet, and they'll usually show you where it's going next. "I Can Haz Cheeseburger" taught us about memes. Keyboard Cat introduced millions to YouTube. Grumpy Cat's marketing deals established a business model for influencers. Now the online world is turning again.

Animals were one of the last reliable sources of joy on an internet filled with madness – innocence in a sea of anger and clickbait. But lately I've felt that slipping away.

For decades my reaction to cute animal videos was softness. Now it's suspicion: was that real, or just AI?

If you look closely, there's a strange psychological dance playing out here that you might unwittingly be part of. And just beneath the surface, you can see the economic forces dictating the next moves from the tech giants.

I'd argue that puppies and kittens are the first casualty in the coming war on truth. They offer a glimpse of what it's going to feel like to live through the internet's next revolution.

"Part of the joy of cute animal videos is, 'Oh my god, look at this adorable thing that has actually happened,'" says Jessica Maddox, an associate professor of media studies at University of Georgia, US. "AI completely removes that from the equation."

It could be the gateway to something more harmful. The only question is how you, and I and all our cat-loving compatriots are going to react.

Why can't AI cats be cute?

For a while I hoped this was just a me problem, the side effects of a mind turned sour by years of tech journalism. But dozens of people have told me about the same pattern.

You see an animal video that feels too good to be true, and no-one likes getting fooled. So you suspend your emotions and dive in the comments, hoping someone's figured out whether you should be happy or disappointed.

Authenticity is a bigger problem for some genres than others. "Oddly satisfying" videos, where things move or fit together in a way that scratches your brain just right, are another victim. The same goes for the oldest form of comedy: people getting hit in the head.

It may be subconscious. "But on some level, these videos are about connection", says Maddox, author of The Internet is for Cats: How Animal Images Shape our Digital Lives.

The joy feels manufactured. It can be hollow in a way that's almost fraudulent – Jessica Maddox

"It brings you joy, and you know it brought someone else joy on the other side of the screen as well," says Maddox. "It's the parasocial relationship of it all."

But people love animation, so from a psychological perspective, why does it matter if videos are fake?

When you see an unlabelled AI video, Maddox says it feels like a set up. "The joy feels manufactured. It can be hollow in a way that's almost fraudulent. Ultimately I think it's going to make us a lot more cynical about the world."

There are two possible futures. One is people will hate this so much they seek out something else. If our attention drifts, new social media companies might fill the void. Existing platforms could be forced to bury AI slop to hold on to users. Content creators who post real videos would rise to the top.

Or maybe AI will be just satisfying enough that it takes over our feeds. If that sounds dystopian to you, there's been some troubling recent history.

Who cares if it's real?

Catastrophic floods tore through the American south during Hurricane Helene in 2024. There were plenty of real photos, but some particularly devasting AI images went viral as people used them to criticise the US government's response.

Some faced backlash for sharing AI fakes, including Republican National Committee member Amy Kremer. "Y'all, I don’t know where this photo came from and honestly, it doesn't matter," she tweeted at the time. "It is seared into my mind forever."

As journalist Parker Molloy noted, many people seemed to agree, acknowledging the images were fake but insisting they were "real on some deeper level".

Keeping Tabs

Thomas Germain is a senior technology journalist at the BBC. He writes the column Keeping Tabs and co-hosts the The Interface podcast. His work uncovers the hidden systems that run your digital life, and how you can live better inside them.

It's not just political material, either. Earlier this year, a parody of the reality TV show Love Island starring sexualised, AI-generated talking fruit racked up millions of views. The attention on "Fruit Love Island" was short lived, but it raised questions about the future of entertainment.

"A lot of this only worked because there was something original to reference," Maddox says. "The joke only lands because there's a real Love Island."

Still, Maddox expects some large number of people will enjoy AI animal videos, and the AI content that follows it. But there could be more significant consequences.

A cutesy dystopia?

"On the internet, sometimes the cute and the innocent is the gateway to more harmful," Maddox says.

AI content isn't limited to animals, of course. If we get used to fabricated cats and the rest of the AI menagerie, Maddox says that same tolerance may extend to more consequential fakes – like manipulated images of politicians, made-up crime footage and racist AI caricatures.

And there could be more immediate casualties: human content creators. People who make a living posting real videos will have to compete with AI opponents who don't have to sleep and pump out videos in the blink of an eye. It could make more thoughtful content harder to monetise, and therefore scarcer.