Gloomscrolling: The Outrage at Zozobra's A.I. Onslaught
Opinion By Warren Langford
In early 2025, 505OMATIC noticed this post on Zozobra's official Instagram account. If you've been following the evolution of generative AI art online, this style might look familiar to you. It certainly made us raise an eyebrow.
We ran it through the AI detectors of the day, which we acknowledge are faulty, but there was a consensus. Diagnosis: 🤖
We then decided to call attention to it in our IG stories with a poll:
We posted the results and the Zozobra account responded:
Uhh, sure. We talked to a representative over the phone, let them know we ran it through the detectors, and they acknowledged that this one may have slipped by them. Accidents happen, I guess. But rather than put this artist that won the contest on blast, we dropped it there. And it really seemed like Zozobra Inc. had learned their lesson when they announced they wouldn't except AI submissions in the art contest this year.
Good for them... kinda. Hard to take seriously a "No AI" statement that is clearly composed in part by AI. But fast forward to May of this year and suddenly..
Here we go again. But this time it wasn't just us who noticed..
..so over the weekend we put another little poll in our stories:
And then tagged them in the results
And again they responded, posting in their own stories!
Oof. Setting aside how insulting it is that this response has also CLEARLY been filtered through AI, [RIP EM DASH] it's truly disturbing that they think we would buy this. Most of you don't:
So what do we do with the information that one of our more universally beloved Santa Fe celebrations, is playing in our faces like this? Personally, I find it whack, and a little heartbreaking.
At that moment, I could ask to see the sketches or the process but I'm kinda sick of being lied to. I mean, who are we kidding? This obfuscating or bending of the truth, or whatever degree of dishonesty is actually at play here, is just so..oh heck, I'll be basic and say it: It's that same ORWELLIAN "Reject the evidence of your eyes and ears" shit coming from The White House.
Maybe some of what they're saying is true, about the pencils, and the "by hand" part, but the failure to even acknowledge that THESE ARE 100% run through a large language model.. is just kinda disgusting, disrespectful, and yes, sloppy AF. But, just as I have lost any semblance of faith that the current stewards of the public face of Zozobra respected Santa Fe's intelligence, Wednesday, June 10th the account made a surprise announcement.
First reaction? Good!
Uuuhh but, this is written by AI again.
Hey, they absolutely should find a way to pay people.
And, this dodges all accountability for the AI and the lying about the AI using AI [AAAAAHH!]
And [deep breath] yes, "No AI entries permitted, ever." is a tune we've heard before. At least we seem to be headed in the right direction. I mean, could they for real be kicking the habit? The answer came when this was posted Thursday..
Well... It's hard to go cold turkey. Also: Where's Zozobra's lips? He's kinda famous for those 👄 you guys.
So here it is 5:07 AM on Friday June 12th, and I'm about to hit publish on this blog and I decide to check if there's been any updates on ye ol' @burnzozobra..
Wait, it's...gone!??
Checked on my phone, not there either..then my sleepyhead put it together.
We've finally been blocked by Zozobra.
Wow, what a weird thing for one to be blocked by a ritualistic effigy burning.
@burnzozobra is of course is a very public profile, for a very public event, so it's not like we have to hack the mainframe to be able to monitor what's going on there. Fun stuff like this:
Now you might be thinking, this isn't just Zozobra, everybody's doin' the robot. We've noticed the City of Santa Fe is posting event announcements complete with Chat GPT's signature emoji-laden descriptions
...Which makes it really hard to believe their taking whatever issue seriously and not just ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
And recently, Albuquerque's Arts and Culture department got in hot water for an AI work they used for promo. But not before it was printed and distributed.
And who could forget the scandal when Balloon Fiesta let an AI submission win their annual poster contest?
I'll end by saying, we deserve better. Zozobra creator Will Shuster; his legacy (as complicated as it is) deserves better. And, as has been pointed out ad nauseam in the comments, this town's ample extremely talented graphic artists, who's work has been stolen to create these AI systems AND who's careers have been put in jeopardy by it's proliferation, deserve better.
Is Zozobra really trying to get off the sauce? Whatever the case may be, in this moment our collective outrage seems to have at least nudged them in the right direction, time will tell how long it holds.
By the way, If you or a loved one is considering using AI to make a flyer or logo please...don't, and let us connect you to a professional. We happen to know a lot of talented HUMAN graphic designers.