AI clips of violent vegetables could radicalise children, researchers warn

Experts from GNET said that violence-based AI "slops" (low-quality, mass-produced digital content) reinforce a fascination with violence for violence’s sake, allowing an "ode to violence" to gain ground among young people. They noted an escalation from absurdist AI-generated drama into explicitly graphic content. The radicalising potential, they explained, does not necessarily lie in ideological messaging alone, but in the normalization of cruelty, emotional numbness, and algorithmically amplified shock culture. The transition from harmless humour to graphic AI gore reflects a broader dynamic of online radicalisation: the gradual erosion of emotional boundaries through constant exposure to increasingly violent and dehumanising imagery.

Animated foods use guns and axes to kill their enemies in some videos, while other videos are linked to specific criminal groups. One example appears to replicate content from official IS videos with a carrot that makes a potato “explode”, the study found. Another features a "Carrot Khalifah" telling his army “the Carrot State will rise again”, evoking a slogan used by IS. Two IS posts included hashtags often used by the terrorist group’s supporters to disseminate propaganda. The report also highlighted an account that shares violent fruit and vegetable AI content and also references the neo-Nazi terrorist organisation Atomwaffen Division, as well as the nihilistic violence subculture No Lives Matter. Comments on the content include statements of extreme right-wing ideology, with the message “potato supremacy” referring to white supremacy. One post included in the report shows an AI image of a tomato that says: “No vegetables matter.”

The researchers said that AI-generative platforms are a crucial tool for creating viral content online, including violent and extremist content. Food violence-based material empowered by AI is easily accessible, putting minors and youth at risk of inadvertently consuming graphic or disturbing content. Scenes with AI fruit and vegetables are simple, highly repetitive, require no cognitive effort, provide constant rewards through unexpected scenes, and are perfect for endless scrolling. They are specifically designed for the algorithm, extremely quick to produce, and optimised for engagement, acting as attention traps. The team raised fears that users may "stumble" on the terror material and approach membership into the online ecosystems, with comments functioning as "communication hubs" where users provide extra details. This type of content can lay the basis for the consumption of further violence-based audiovisual material, making young users fall into the trap of online radicalisation.