I've got no problem with people suggesting changes to how merits work, but honestly, implementing a system where moderators have to manually deduct merit points from users who post AI-generated content just seems like way too much hassle. I mean, if someone is posting shit that needs to be removed, can't we just click the nuke or ban button already? It's faster, easier, and gets rid of the problem without having to deal with all this bureaucratic nonsense.
It doesn't necessarily have to a job done by moderator or anyone at all, some tweak like any post's with the merit gets deleted by moderator will deducted from the total merit earned so if a mod delete a post for spam that has merit will be dealt at the same time like two birds in a stone but the only problem is with the exception.
About the Idea I don't think it's really necessary, not much of those AI spammers can't get enough merits above member rank to be honest before getting caught and already there's a rules that might get them to be banned if they're using AI so it's even better right than just losing their merits.