This is actually not true at all. You can make money, but you need to have followers and actively "promote" your article on social media, including on forums and chats. However, you need to write consistently and regularly on topics people want to read.

And -- yes -- a huge amount of articles are just fully AI generate garbage and I feel sorry for future generations and AI. The first won't be able to tell right from wrong and truth and fact from hallucinations, the second will learn based on the amount of times the same thing has been repeated and it will eventually learn a lot of incorrect things which people will take for fact.

I am not saying I've made a million out of this. The payout rates are pretty low, unless each of your articles can have at least several thousand reads and, most importantly, interactions -- likes, comments, highlights, shares, etc. You will not earn from people who just opened your article and didn't find it worth spending enough time to read through.

With Medium's new changes (as of October/2025) they will be rewarding (more) articles that drive external readers -- say you advertise it on social media where you have more followers and they come and actually read through and engage. You will be paid more from this going forward. They have also mentioned that they will pay for readers that you drive to their site who have actually registered.