In episode 669 of the New Media Show, host Rob Greenlee talks with Rob Walch, VP of Podcaster Relations at Captivate and DAX. Podcast Hall of Famers Rob Walch and Rob Greenlee discuss one of the biggest pressure points facing creators today: Can human creators grow, monetize, and maintain audience trust as platforms fill with AI-generated podcasts, synthetic video, cloned voices, and automated content channels? I apologize for the rough audio in this episode. The audio was choppy in the virtual recording, and I did the best I could to improve it. The conversation begins with a bigger question: Where is the line between useful AI tools and low-effort, fully automated content that weakens trust, damages advertising ROI, and makes it harder for original creators to be discovered and rewarded? AI can help creators research, edit, translate, caption, clip, and distribute their work more efficiently. But the human perspective, real creative judgment, authentic voice, and trusted audience relationship must remain at the center of the content experience. Rob Walch shares updates on Captivate, DAX, and the evolving podcast monetization landscape before diving into the rise of mass-produced AI content and the growing use of the term “AI slop.” Rob Greenlee and Rob Walch discuss why not every use of AI belongs in the same category, why transparency and disclosure matter, and how creators can use AI responsibly without losing the human value that makes their work worth following. They also explore YouTube’s evolving AI-labeling approach, the future of human-generated content, platform responsibility, advertising risks, Apple HLS video, YouTube’s new focus on audio listening, video-versus-audio strategy, and how AI tools may help independent creators manage a rapidly expanding distribution workload. The larger takeaway is that creators do not need to choose between being human and using AI. The opportunity is to use AI as a creative and operational assistant while keeping human thinking, trust, judgment, relationships, and original perspective at the core of the work. 00:00 Welcome to New Media Show #669 01:30 Introducing Rob Walch and His New Role at Captivate 02:30 Captivate Marketplace and Creator Monetization 05:00 What DAX and Global Bring to Podcast Advertising 08:30 What Does “AI Slop” Actually Mean? 11:00 How Mass AI Content Could Hurt Ad ROI and CPMs 13:30 The Scale of AI-Generated Podcast Uploads 16:00 Why AI Use Is Not One-Size-Fits-All 18:00 Bad Human Content vs. Bad AI Content 20:00 Platform Responsibility, Spam, and Fraud 22:00 YouTube AI Labeling and Creator Disclosure 25:00 AI Watermarks, Trust, and Human-Generated Content 28:00 Will Advertisers Prefer Human-Hosted Shows? 30:00 When Creators Should Disclose AI Use 33:00 AI Tools for Research, Editing, Audio Cleanup, and Workflows 36:00 Human Creativity Still Matters 39:00 Platform Discovery, Algorithms, and Audience Signals 44:00 Audio, Video, and YouTube’s Growing Interest in Listenin