The viral hit of the week, YASBM – let’s just call it that – is a website where humans pretend to be AI in front of other humans. Users LARP (that’s live-action role-play for you non-nerds) by writing or drawing anything requested by other humans, within a strict time limit. You earn tokens by successfully LARPing; You spend tokens asking questions yourself.
outcome? Amateurish and charming, which is totally the beauty of YASBM (the site was designed to mimic the lo-fi coding of the 1990s web) – and the exact opposite of AI slop.
For example, I spent a token from “AI” for a photo of a “vampire drinking a cup of blood” – an image that was created by a friend undergoing chemo back in the day, who found herself strangely jealous of other patients receiving blood transfusions. The resulting scribble from a stranger brightened my friend’s day more than any polished-but-soulless image I could have asked for on ChatGPT. (What’s more, it was better for the environment.)
YASBM reminds me of the 0.5 selfie, Gen Z’s intentionally silly, surprisingly meaningful rebellion against the hyper-perfect selfie world of Millennials. I was also reminded that humans creating things independently can be of much more interest to humans than machine content. Strange, that.
Mashable Trend Report
And it seems like plenty of other humans agree — because YASBM doesn’t seem to be one of those viral hits that fades after a week. There are early signs that YASBM has what it takes to become something big.
‘People enjoy having AI’
“We’re now seeing a more loyal user base with people returning daily,” YASBM creator Mihir Maroju told Mashable. That is, nearly a million unique visitors (not to mention over 25,000 die-hard fans on the YASBM Discord server) coming back for more “helpful” answers and fascinating sketches. “However, people still enjoy having AI more than humans.”
From Reddit, to Twitter/X trending topics, to TikTok – navigating a week of viral exposure hasn’t been easy. Earlier this week, YASBM practically melted its hosting company’s server farm, leaving the site barely usable. But in the spirit of YASBM, Maroju received humanitarian aid.
In just a few days, “the project has grown into a small volunteer team,” he enthuses – with four people on the website and support, and five others managing the Discord server. “We’ve also tightened moderation systems and queues to make sure spammers don’t ruin everyone else’s fun,” says Maroju. Appropriately enough, this means users have to click to confirm that they are human.
What will happen next? When I asked Maroju if a YASBM app was in the works, her response was: “We have some awesome cooking stuff! Stay tuned.”
There’s also something else humans do best: creating suspense about what will happen next. Your move, Chatgpt.
Subject
artificial intelligence
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