AI Slop

You’ve seen AI Slop.
You’ve probably scrolled past it today.
Maybe you’ve accidentally shipped it.

It’s the generic blog post, the 5th-grade-sounding chatbot response, the soulless slide deck that checks the boxes but says nothing. It’s content without voice. Automation without intention. Productivity without purpose.

Welcome to the era of AI Slop.¹ 

😅 Okay but really.

Yeah AI Slop is basically everywhere. It makes sense since:

• The internet is ad-supported from birth²

• Ads run on attention (ad revenue scales with views or engagement, NOT value creation or content quality)

• Our attention span can podium in the Olympic 400 m (👉️ it’s short, and waning)

• And requires the constant drip, drip, drip of content³

And add to the above that humans are greedy⁴. We optimize for what’s simplest, cheapest, fastest, and most immediately satisfying. We’re wired to love sugar, follow the crowd, get duped by con men, etc.

And so long as attention runs the internet, AI Slop is the fastest and cheapest way to drive down costs and keep us clicking, and like good money pushing out bad⁵, will inevitably crowd out the high quality stuff.

That said, I think we can all agree that if AI Slop were something we’re interested in, we would probably call it Story Telling powered by AI.

🌎️ Is everything AI generated Slop?

The AI Slop that opened this post notwithstanding, let’s be clear on what it is:

→ Is everything that AI creates bullshit?

🙅 AI creates amazing things. I use it all the time. It’s going to fact check this post when I’m happy with the content. But 9/10 when I ask it to rewrite anything substantial, it gives me gobbledygook like that paragraph above. That said, I haven’t played enough with Veo 3 which from early reports look bonkers good.

→ Is it slop if I’m not interested in turning a profit?

🤑 Yes, I don’t care why you do it, but if you blindly copy and paste and put it out there, it’s Slop. Also if you’re doing it for some other reason than eventually making money (e.g. chasing leads, growing brand, crowding out competitors → 💰️ )…why are you doing it? I’m genuinely curious.

→ What if I leverage AI to edit my work, and sometimes use some of its output verbatim, but keep most of the piece in my own words

🪞 To this I say you gotta look yourself in the mirror. If you’re genuine about how you leverage it’s output, I think that’s fine! I also think those of us who leverage GenAI a lot know the difference in using it to support our work vs. having it replace our thoughts (along with any originality we posses).

I’ve absolutely felt that urge to just use what it spits out because it’s sometimes basically good enough, and frankly, I’m tired of iterating and iterating (see above: we tend to prefer easier things). Maybe it doesn’t make sense for me to put that paragraph in my words for the sake of saying it’s in my words. On the other hand, it’s a slippery slope. I think it’s really easy to get lulled into using it more and more until it goes from 90% human / 10% AI, to 10% human / 90% AI⁶.

🤷‍♂️ Can I stop it?

Probably not, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Here are some things to consider⁷:

1. Change your consumption habits. Stop reading bullshit articles, find people you trust and whose opinions matter to you and follow them.

2. Skip the trust, just verify. Before sharing stuff online, do some due diligence to make sure it wasn’t obviously AI generated⁸.

3. Choose subscription models. I understand not everyone can afford this, and I definitely take advantage of the free internet. Still, when there are content creators I like or outlets I use often, I’m happy to throw a few bucks their way.

There are lots more things you can do but the above is light weight enough and you’ll see immediate benefit to your own consumption that its a good place to start.

Ultimately though, just set a higher bar for what you create and how you want to spend your internet time. If that’s your North Star, you’ll naturally move in the direction of less Slop.

🪣 Is Slop really such a problem?

I dunno - if everyone did it, and the internet was 90% AI Slop, how would that make you feel? Do we care about AI inbreeding⁹? Could you even tell the difference?

¹ You guessed it, that paragraph was AI Slop courtesy of ChatGPT

² Though I’m not sure our US Senators have yet to receive the memo

³ More like a firehose in the age of AI

⁴ I mean this more in the algorithmic sense, but we’re kinda greedy in a general sense

⁵ It’s a “Law” so you know its true

⁶ This internal battle that honest people undergo doesn’t even account for SEO farms, digital agencies using it for content volume, and other actors we’ve all seen use it. They’re actually the main culprits of internet content going down the drain.

⁷ Claude Sonnet 4 gave me a bunch of ideas, but most weren’t useful for regular folks. This is what overlapped with my list.

⁸ Except when your crazy uncle (why is it always the uncle??) forwards you obviously Russian-generated fake news, then you can absolutely blast that on your socials

⁹ Such a great term to describe AI being trained on the output of AI leading to degradation and model collapse.