Youth Creator Launches Viral Human-Run AI Impersonation Site

Mihir Maroju, a 17-year-old high school graduate from Puducherry, India, launched the website Your AI Slop Bores Me, where humans pretend to be AI chatbots by responding to user requests for information and images. The platform grew rapidly within its first month, drawing nearly 280 million hits and more than 25 million unique visitors.

To maintain the illusion of machine speed, the site enforces a 75-second response limit for human operators. Maroju has since implemented content filters to manage the site's growth and mitigate spam and loophole exploits. Other pranksters have adopted similar tactics; Nashville comedian Ben Palmer created fake AI sites to deceive users into thinking they were interacting with ChatGPT to observe how people react when the simulated AI behaves unpredictably.

Public reactions to these impersonations vary from amusement to anger. OpenAI responded to the trend by stating that such pop culture manifestations reflect the ways people are integrating ChatGPT into their daily lives through humor.