“I’ve actually spent a lot of time looking at the comment sections on these videos, and it doesn’t seem like a bot. I clicked on people’s profiles; these are real profiles, thousands of followers, no signs of inorganic activity,” says Maddox. “People love it.”
But even if the views and engagement are genuine, that doesn’t mean the content is profitable – yet. Maddox noted that because the accounts are so new, they most likely have not yet been enrolled in TikTok’s Creator Fund or other forms of social media ad revenue-sharing, as those accounts typically require a certain amount of views to apply and a certain number of views. But, Maddox says, the earning potential is huge, with the potential to earn thousands of dollars per video if they get millions of views.
AI fruit content started to be posted before March Fruit Love IslandBut many recently created pages clearly take inspiration from its success. there is summer i became fruitfulBased on the popular teen drama I became beautiful in summer; The Fruitpier Diariesbased on the cw series the Vampire Diaries; And food is blindbased on netflix love is blind.
Predecessors of this AI fruit content include Italian BrainRot characters like Ballerina Cappuccina and Bombardino Crocodile, and the Alsace controversy. But with these AI Fruit miniseries that attempt to follow a narrative across multiple segments or episodes, the most obvious similarity actually feels like the microdrama, vertical short-form scripted series that American big tech companies are starting to invest more in. Like AI Fruits, these are minute-long episodic shows intended to perform well on social media, ultimately directing viewers to paywalled sequels.
Ben L. Cohen, a Los Angeles actor credited in about 15 of these vertical microdramas, sees at least one common thread between the AI fruit drama and other shows he’s worked on: They both feature “a lot of violence toward women.” Cohen says, they try to put as much drama as possible into these short clips and have attention-grabbing titles in the style of “Alpha Werewolf Daddy Impregnated Me.”
“I think it’s what attracts people to that jarring, absurd, cartoonish atmosphere. It’s cartoonish abuse, but it’s still abuse.”
Vertical microdrama acting work still exists in LA, which can’t be said for all acting programs right now. Cohen has spoken with others working in the industry about how AI is already being integrated more into video, potentially threatening the existence of human actors in clickbait content. After all, it’s much cheaper and faster to produce AI fruit episodes than actual productions. This also raises the question whether some people will prefer the AI series they are inspired by? Already, the answer is yes.
“How it is love island Will overtake AI Fruit Love Island?” a TikToker with over 70,000 followers asked, arguing that the AI fruit version was more attractive than the actual reality show. When it started getting criticized, he deleted the video, but others agreed with him.
“I think TikTok was definitely a big part of it,” Cohen says of audiences’ shorter attention spans and desire for compressed, sometimes AI-generated drama. “It makes sense that people are attracted to a one-minute clip, and then they’ll say ‘Oh, I’ll watch another minute clip.’ You’re not committed to a full 20-minute episode. Or 40 minutes. Or an hour. You can just watch for a minute.”
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