Updated
Updated · WIRED · Jul 31
AI Storytellers Rack Up 1.5 Million X Views, Earn $500-$700 Fortnightly
Updated
Updated · WIRED · Jul 31

AI Storytellers Rack Up 1.5 Million X Views, Earn $500-$700 Fortnightly

1 articles · Updated · WIRED · Jul 31

Summary

  • A Nigerian creator who says he uses Grok or ChatGPT to write serialized melodramas drew 1.5 million views in two days on one X thread and said the platform pays him $500-$700 every two weeks.
  • X’s Creative Revenue Sharing program rewards engagement-heavy posts; creators qualify by buying Premium, reaching 500 verified followers and logging 5 million impressions over three months.
  • The compact first-person tales typically pose as true stories, follow a formula of injustice and public vindication, and often pull hundreds of thousands or millions of views.
  • That incentive structure has already drawn abuse: X sued 8 Vietnamese creators and 25 John Does in 2025 over alleged bot-boosted AI content, then later cut aggregator payments and removed millions of copied posts.
  • The spread of these fabricated redemption threads shows how cheap AI writing and engagement payouts are filling feeds with highly clickable but inauthentic content.

Insights

How is X’s payout system turning AI-written courtroom melodramas into a profitable business built on fake first-person testimony?
What happens to trust on X when AI can mass-produce outrage, revenge, and vindication faster than real people can tell true stories?