AI-generated images make a blog less worth reading, writes a developer

A short opinion piece by developer Nelson Figueroa is drawing attention again: AI-generated images, he writes, discourage him from reading a blog — and especially from trusting it.

What the post says

Figueroa describes a growing dislike of AI-generated images in blogs, because seeing one makes him wonder whether the text of the post was generated too, at least to some extent. The disappointment is greatest, he says, on blogs run by individuals: he expects this from corporate blogs, but not from indie ones. His stated preference is blunt — he would rather see a poor drawing made in Microsoft Paint. He notes that his own blog may be easy to mock, but at least readers know they are getting the thoughts of a real human being and not an LLM, and he closes with a direct request to personal bloggers: avoid AI-generated images.

Why one image carries so much weight

The piece runs to roughly a hundred words, and its claim is about perception rather than measured harm. Even so, it points to something practical: on a personal blog an illustration is usually optional, so choosing a generated one is a deliberate signal. Readers who have learned to recognise the visual style of generative models tend to read that signal as evidence about the whole page — if the picture was machine-made, they reason, the text may be too.

The trust economy of personal writing

That is why the complaint resonates. Personal blogs compete with industrial content, and their main asset is the sense that a specific person did the work. Figueroa’s post was first published in October 2024 and updated in February 2026; that it was discussed widely in tech circles again in August 2026 suggests the discomfort it names has not faded as generative tools spread.