When we launched Rabid Fans 18 months ago, nobody mentioned AI in the comments.

Now we see it constantly:

“Thank God this isn’t AI.”
“Finally, something that doesn’t feel fake.”

That shift tells you everything.

While the internet debates whether AI is salvation or apocalypse, regular people are saying something simpler: they still want things made by humans.

I get it. Most of what’s flooding the internet right now is fast, polished, and dead — content engineered to fill space and feed algorithms. It exists without really saying anything.

To be clear: I use AI every day. It’s been a huge help in running my business — organizing ideas, brainstorming, drafting legal docs, handling accounting, checking grammar, and speeding things up. Pretending otherwise would be idiotic.

The truth is, filmmaking has used intelligent tools for years — in non-linear editing, color correction, sound design, VFX, and post-production workflows. None of that is new. The tools have just gotten much better. The problem isn’t that technology helps the process. The problem is when companies use that progress as an excuse to take the human out of the equation.

There’s a line. AI should be part of the toolkit — not in the director’s chair, the writers’ room, or in front of the camera. It can support the work, but it can’t replace the voice, taste, and perspective that make something worth watching.

Where platforms really lose the plot is when the machine starts dictating the art. Not just with AI slop, but with the broader algorithm brain that keeps flattening creators into whatever performs best this week.

Comedian Matt Rife made this point recently. When his TikTok views fell off a cliff — despite having almost 20 million followers — he spoke to TikTok directly. Their answer in a nutshell: We’re not pushing stand-up anymore; try a dance video. 

That right there is the whole problem.

When a creator who built a real audience doing the thing he is actually good at gets told to stop doing that and start chasing trends, the system is telling on itself. It is saying, very clearly: we do not reward craft, voice, or depth. We reward whatever keeps the feed moving.

That is how you end up with disposable culture.

That is how you get fake digital stars, microdrama factories built around churn, and anonymous YouTube accounts pumping out endless AI knockoffs designed to game the feed instead of making something worth caring about. South Park rip-offs. Meme accounts with no voice. Fifty disposable pieces of content a day, all optimized for volume and forgotten instantly.

Maybe that works if your goal is output.

That’s not our goal at VICTORYROAD.

With Rabid Fans, we didn’t want to make some clean, generic sports show. We wanted something with a pulse. Something that felt like actual fandom — irrational, hilarious, emotional, tribal, painfully human. Even when it’s coming from a bunch of completely unhinged critters.

Because that’s what sports fans actually are — rabid.

They overreact.
They contradict themselves within 48 hours.
They carry emotional baggage from games a decade old.
They declare their team “back” after one win, then demand the coach’s head two days later.

That chaos is the fun.

We wanted to capture that. Not commentary. Not clips. Not more “content.”

Original sports IP with a real voice. Characters. A world. A tone. Something that feels authored.

And that authorship is real. Rabid Fans is drawn, animated, voice acted, edited, directed, and written by humans. Every joke, every frame, and every performance comes from actual people making something on purpose.

Entertainment still has to entertain. Storytelling still has to make people feel something. Optimize all the humanity out, and don’t be shocked when the result feels empty.

So no — I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-slop. Anti-sterile, interchangeable, algorithm-chasing content that technically functions but emotionally flatlines.

As more of that floods the market, the companies that win won’t just be the ones making more stuff. They’ll be the ones that still know how to make people care.

That’s the bet we’re making with Rabid Fans and everything at VICTORYROAD. And honestly, I feel better about that bet now than I did 18 months ago.

Because AI can make things faster, but it can’t make them matter.

That part is still on us.

And because we still believe this should be fun, here’s Rabid Fans satirizing AI:

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