How is spending 750 billion on AI slop that nobody wants makes any sense?

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Summary

Multiple studies show low consumer preference for generative AI, zero productivity impact for most firms, and zero ROI from corporate AI projects, raising doubts about massive AI investments. Data includes Gartner's finding that half of US adults prefer brands without AI, an NBER paper showing 90% of firms see no productivity gain, and an MIT study tracking 95% of corporate AI projects at zero ROI.

Gartner's 2026 consumer panel finds half of US adults would actively prefer brands that don't use generative AI. Half. A February 2026 NBER paper finds 90% of surveyed firms report zero productivity impact from AI deployments. An MIT GenAI study tracks 95% of corporate projects at zero ROI. [Microsoft's own Copilot has lost 39% of its market share in six months](https://www.reconanalytics.com/ai-choice-2026-why-licenses-dont-equal-adoption/), with users citing distrust of outputs as the leading reason. The platform-level data is sharper. Wikipedia banned AI-generated articles in March. Stack Overflow lost 78% of new-question volume in twelve months. [cURL ended its bug bounty program after AI-generated slop submissions overwhelmed its security team](https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/21/curl_ends_bug_bounty/). Google AI Overviews have cut click-through rates by 58% on top-ranked pages, with 58% of all searches now ending in zero clicks. Publisher referral traffic is down 25% on average, 33% globally on news. Read here : [https://aiweekly.co/issues/ai-slop-a-725b-bet-on-what-no-one-wanted](https://aiweekly.co/issues/ai-slop-a-725b-bet-on-what-no-one-wanted)
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