Recently while scrolling across social media, I saw an ad for a company that claims to offer language learning services.  “Learn a language while you read.”  Their pitch is that by reading a book in a foreign language, you learn the language.  Looking at their site – and I’m not going to give them credit by linking here – they use what’s called a diglot weave (which they did not invent).

A diglot weave is when you take a text and mix in another language.  So you’re reading English, but sentences mix in words in French, with the idea that you learn French from the context.

Whether a diglot weave is the best way to learn is a different conversation.  The reviews are pretty mixed for this company, because they’re making it a pretty low effort enterprise: predominantly choose public domain works (no cost to them) and mechanically translate (which may not be idiomatic), etc.

But my topic here is actually the ad.

Let’s Make Fun of AI

Here’s the ad I saw:

Admittedly, it’s been a long time since I read Huckleberry Finn – over 30 years, in fact.  However, I don’t recall any passage in which he fired a laser sniper rifle while surfing on a log wearing modern hiking boots.  Or any part of the novel set in a mountain lake, but that’s the least of this artwork’s problems.

This was obviously AI-generated.  I mean, the scope’s sight doesn’t even line up with the rifle, and there are other tell-tale clues.

The comments were predictably hilarious:

I admit, as soon as I saw the ad, I had the same thoughts and jumped in to either laugh with others or add a snark of my own.

And then I realized…that was the point.

AI Criticism Clickbait

This is an old trick on social media advertising: post something deliberately incorrect to incite comments.

Here, the advertiser is just using an up-to-date inflammatory topic.  People don’t like AI,particularly in creative fields like art, where AI-generated images are often clumsy, uncanny, or outright absurd.  People who come bad AI will readily mock it when it produces goofy results.

And that’s the point.

By presenting something obviously flawed, the advertiser taps into a predictable human reaction: mockery, criticism, and debate. Social media users are quick to point out mistakes, share them with captions like “look at this nonsense,” and flood the post with comments, laughing emojis, and angry takes. This kind of reaction is gold—not for public perception, but for the algorithm.

Algorithms don’t care whether the engagement is positive or negative. They’re programmed to surface content that generates interaction. So when people pile on to mock or criticize, the platform sees a spike in activity—comments, likes, emoji reactions, shares—and interprets it as a signal of relevance and interest.  This artificially inflates the ad’s reach, pushing it into more feeds, exposing more eyes to the product, and potentially increasing conversions from those who are merely curious.

The result? The advertiser gets free amplification, a flood of traffic, and possibly more conversions—all from a painting so bad it couldn’t possibly be accidental.

You can almost imagine the marketing assistant repeatedly feeding prompts into Midjourney until finally one comes across that is so bad that it’s chosen.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.