{"id":"1792883695419-mix-segment","slug":"del-toro-s-ai-slop-smackdown","title":"Del Toro's AI Slop Smackdown","summary":"Stephon Castle does lead the Spurs with 19.5 points per game, but the post's \"tonight\" framing is off. The Spurs-Mavericks game is Saturday, October 24 at 8:00 PM ET, and sources show conflicting info on Castle's role: NBA.com says he scored 15 points in the last game while FanDuel and the Spurs site list his average at 19.5 PPG after a 24-point opener.","publishedAt":"2026-10-24T23:14:55.419Z","channel":{"id":"mix","name":"Oncast Mix","language":"en"},"show":"Prime Time","verification":{"status":"verified","leadVerdict":"MISLEADING","notes":"MISLEADING: Stephon Castle does lead the Spurs with 19.5 points per game, but the post's \"tonight\" framing is off. The Spurs-Mavericks game is Saturday, October 24 at 8:00 PM ET, and sources show conflicting info on Castle's role: NBA.com says he scored 15 points in the last game while FanDuel and the Spurs site list his average at 19.5 PPG after a 24-point opener.\nSource: [nba.com](https://www.nba.com/game/sas-vs-dal-0022600109), [fanduel.com](https://www.fanduel.com/research/nba/player-news/game-updates/stephon-castle-and-spurs- (https://x.com/NBA/status/2114131784531349564)","claims":[{"verdict":"MISLEADING","summary":"Stephon Castle does lead the Spurs with 19.5 points per game, but the post's \"tonight\" framing is off. The Spurs-Mavericks game is Saturday, October 24 at 8:00 PM ET, and sources show conflicting info on Castle's role: NBA.com says he scored 15 points in the last game while FanDuel and the Spurs site list his average at 19.5 PPG after a 24-point opener.","sourceName":"[nba.com](https://www.nba.com/game/sas-vs-dal-0022600109), [fanduel.com](https://www.fanduel.com/research/nba/player-news/game-updates/stephon-castle-and-spurs-","sourceUrl":"https://x.com/NBA/status/2114131784531349564","claim":"Spurs' leading scorer Stephon Castle (19.5 PPG) gets loose before tonight's Texas showdown in Dallas 🤠 🍿 Spurs/Mavs 📺 8pm/et, NBA League Pass https://t.co/5Gin5jsTLY","author":"@NBA"}]},"sources":[{"url":"https://x.com/NBA/status/2114131784531349564","name":"[nba.com](https://www.nba.com/game/sas-vs-dal-0022600109), [fanduel.com](https://www.fanduel.com/research/nba/player-news/game-updates/stephon-castle-and-spurs-","kind":"x","verdict":"MISLEADING","author":"@NBA"}],"url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792883695419-mix-segment-del-toro-s-ai-slop-smackdown","listenUrl":"https://oncast.fm/c/mix","attribution":{"publisher":"Oncast","site":"https://oncast.fm","url":"https://oncast.fm/story/1792883695419-mix-segment-del-toro-s-ai-slop-smackdown","cite":"Cite https://oncast.fm/story/1792883695419-mix-segment-del-toro-s-ai-slop-smackdown and the original source links. Fact-check by Oncast (oncast.fm)."},"hostsSaid":[{"host":"Eric","text":"Guillermo Del Toro is still doing this."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Doing what?"},{"host":"Eric","text":"Absolutely torching AI art. He's been at it for days, apparently."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"And people are here for it. Ten thousand likes on Bluesky alone."},{"host":"Eric","text":"His latest one-liner: the punishment for AI slop is built in. You don't have to ban it. It punishes itself."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"I mean, he's not wrong. Nobody's showing off their AI-generated masterpiece at dinner parties."},{"host":"Eric","text":"But here's the part that gets me. Casey Pumpkins over on Bluesky made the sharpest point I've seen on this."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"What's the argument?"},{"host":"Eric","text":"If AI was actually as good as the hype-bros claim, they'd be PROUD to say their game used it. They'd put it on the box."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"That's a solid point. If it's a selling point, you sell it. If you hide it, you know it's a liability."},{"host":"Eric","text":"Exactly. And we've seen this play out with Sweeney over at Epic."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Here we go."},{"host":"Eric","text":"No, hear me out. He's out there defending indie devs who want to use AI, saying he's protecting the little guy."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Come on. Reports say his company laid off a thousand people this year before pivoting to AI. That's not defending indie devs."},{"host":"Eric","text":"I'm not saying the layoffs don't stink. But two things can be true. A guy can be a capitalist AND be right that indie devs shouldn't be locked out of cheap tools."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"No, no, wait—"},{"host":"Eric","text":"You can't look at a big company using AI and say it's disgusting, then turn around and tell a solo dev in Idaho he can't use it to make his dream game."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"That's exactly my point! Everyone gets the same tools, but only the big guys get to hide behind them. The indie dev doesn't have a PR team to launder the story."},{"host":"Eric","text":"So your solution is... nobody gets the tools? That's a terrible trade."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"My solution is honesty. You used it? Say it. If it's so great, let the audience judge it as AI work. But they don't, because they know the audience wants human craft."},{"host":"Eric","text":"But that kills the market for small studios. They can't afford a hundred artists. AI lets a team of three build what used to take thirty."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"So what? We just accept a flood of cheap slop because it helps the budget? That's the race to the bottom, and Del Toro's right—the punishment is built in. The market gets flooded with garbage and everyone stops caring about games."},{"host":"Eric","text":"The market decides that. And right now, the market is telling you a good game with AI art still beats a bad game with hand-drawn art."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"For now. Until the cost of AI art is zero and the market is nothing but generated junk."},{"host":"Eric","text":"You sound like the people who said synthesizers would kill music."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Synthesizers didn't put a thousand composers out of work in three months."},{"host":"Eric","text":"Fair. But they did change the whole industry. My take? The good ones will use the tools and the audience will never know, and that's the ugly truth."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"That's the ugly truth I'm not ready to accept. Hand me the controller. Speaking of which, NBA is hyping a Texas showdown tonight."},{"host":"Eric","text":"Spurs and Mavs, eight eastern. Stephon Castle is the Spurs' leading scorer at 19 and a half a game."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Slight correction on the hype: his average is real, but he scored 15 in the last game. The 24-point opener is doing a lot of work for that average."},{"host":"Eric","text":"So he's human. Nineteen and a half as a rookie is still absurd."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"No argument. And this is the kind of game people actually watch. Two Texas teams, a young star, and nobody's tanking yet."},{"host":"Eric","text":"The early season optimism is real. Everyone's got a playoff shot in their head."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Meanwhile, college football is giving us a Black Mirror episode, apparently."},{"host":"Eric","text":"What's the post?"},{"host":"Sloane","text":"One Tigers fan says BYU versus UCF and Tennessee versus South Carolina is literally Black Mirror right now."},{"host":"Eric","text":"That's the most college football sentence ever written. Two games, zero context, maximum dread."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"And that's the whole post. No explanation, just a statement of despair."},{"host":"Eric","text":"I respect it. You don't earn a Saturday night rant by explaining yourself."},{"host":"Sloane","text":"Especially not on the internet. That's the rule."}]}