AI has created a new breed of cat video: addictive, disturbing and nauseatingly quick soap operas

At the (tail) end of 2024, Billie Eilish sat cross-legged on stage and began to miaow. Her fans erupted in harmony, each belting out an off-key miaow of their own. This is because Eilish's Oscar-winning track What Was I Made For? – a lachrymose Barbie cut lamenting adulthood's entailing ennui – has become the default soundtrack for a new breed of cat video. You may recognise it: the song often plays over the top of these AI-generated fantasias featuring a cartoonishly fat cat or an equally buff feline with a suspiciously veiny human body. The cat cheats on her lover, falls pregnant or seeks revenge in a weirdly condensed soap opera.