Pinterest CEO Bill Ready
Image: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images, Rofiqul/Adobe Stock, MDRobin/Adobe Stock]
Pinterest, a platform Futurism described as “being strangled by AI slop,” is not having a great day.
The image-based social media company released its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, and, despite a 17% increase in revenue year-over-year (YOY), its shares took a tremendous tumble.
Pinterest stock (NYSE: PINS) dropped about 20% through after-hours trading and into premarket on Wednesday, sitting at 18.6% down at the time of publishing.
We’ll get into the “AI slop” factor, but first, it’s worth noting that Pinterest’s revenue might have improved YOY, but it only just met Wall Street’s expectations of $1.05 billion, according to consensus estimates cited by CNBC.
Pinterest also missed earnings per share estimates of 42 cents, reaching an adjusted 38 cents instead.
Meanwhile, the company predicted its fourth-quarter revenue to reach between $1.31 billion and $1.34 billion, not exactly comforting to investors when Wall Street had projected the highest end of that range.
Pinterest also missed estimated figures for third-quarter sales in the U.S. and Canada ($786 million versus $799 million) and global average revenue per user ($1.78 versus $1.79), according to separate consensus estimates cited by CNBC.
Pinterest released its third-quarter earnings only a couple of weeks after rolling out new generative AI controls. Following a sea of user complaints, the new tools allow users to dial down or—if they really want—up the level of AI-generated content on their feeds.
Users had openly criticised the “AI slop,” with one person stating on X, “I hate how Pinterest is just AI and ads now. It’s just unusable.” The post received 21,000 likes.
Despite the pushback, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready doubled down on AI in an earnings call, referring to it as “the heart of the Pinterest experience.” He even went so far as to call Pinterest an “AI-powered shopping assistant,” further centring AI at the company.
Pinterest saw a 12% increase YOY in global monthly active users, reaching 600 million. In July, the company shared that men were joining the platform at record rates, making up over one-third of users.
As for the advertisements they see, Ready states that Pinterest has “built a performance ads platform that is harnessing our users’ commercial intent and AI-driven automation to improve performance and simplify campaign creation for advertisers.”
He goes on to claim that advertisers' “outbound clicks” have improved by 40% YOY.
In response to a question from an analyst about Pinterest’s new AI controls, Ready further addressed the complex issue of identifying AI-generated content, claiming that no platform could “catch 100%” of uses.
“That’s why we say ‘see less,’ not ‘see none of,’ because the ability to precisely spot that is not perfect for any platform,” he said on the call.
He then made the case that AI will eventually follow in the footsteps of Photoshop and play at least a small part in editing most, if not all, content.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sarah Fielding is an acclaimed journalist with seven years of experience covering mental health, social issues, and tech for publications such as Engadget, PS, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Insider. She's also a cofounder of Empire Coven, a space highlighting trailblazing women across the United States.
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