There's no plan for AI slop

"A few months ago, I was lying in bed, lightly clutching my phone, when Instagram Reels presented me with a brief video that promised an impossible soap opera: There were animated cats-with feline faces but unmistakable human bodies-living seemingly human lives, including in a human-seeming house and also, for some totally unclear reason, at a seemingly human construction site. There was drama: A female cat appeared to have been knocked up. There was also, somehow, a related love triangle involving two far more muscle-y male cats vying for her affection. None of the cats actually spoke. Yet somehow the plot proceeded, with one cat winning the heroine's heart. It was well rendered. It was brain-meltingly inane."

"AI slop is now our collective shorthand for short-form digital garbage. Specifically, the term slop evokes liquidy, wasteful goo, threatening to gush over everything. We use this description because the content AI is manufacturing is often low-quality, vulgar, stupid, even nihilist. What decent defense can be mounted for the video I just described, at least to the best of my internet-corroded memory? This output is gross, indeed, sloppy. And it's getting everywhere."

"AI slop did not emerge from artificial intelligence, generally. ( Artificial intelligence has a broad scope, but the term has been around for a few decades and is often associated with machine learning.) Specifically, the term was birthed around 2023 in the aftermath of generative AI, when platforms like ChatGPT and Dall-E became publicly available, according to Google Trends. All of a sudden, everyday internet users could generate all sorts of stuff."

An Instagram Reel of human-bodied animated cats illustrates the odd, low-value narratives produced by generative tools. The phrase 'AI slop' describes proliferating short-form digital garbage that resembles liquid waste in its excess and poor quality. Such content is often vulgar, stupid, or nihilistic in tone. The label emerged around 2023 after public release of generative platforms like ChatGPT and Dall-E. Easy prompt-driven tools allowed everyday users to mass-produce material. Unsettled business models and subsidized platforms have produced a free-for-all that generates surplus content and digital refuse.

Read at Fast Company