What Is AI Slop and Why Should You Care
What Exactly Is AI Slop
If you've scrolled through social media recently, you've likely come across bizarre or slightly off images, like the infamous Shrimp Jesus or a seemingly real photo of a little girl and a puppy in a flood. These are prime examples of a growing problem known as "AI slop."
AI slop refers to low-to-mid-quality content—spanning video, images, audio, and text—that is mass-produced using AI tools with little concern for accuracy or quality. The creation of this content is incredibly fast and inexpensive, designed to game the internet's attention economy. By flooding platforms, it pushes aside higher-quality, human-made material. Over the past few years, the presence of AI slop has been steadily increasing, posing a significant challenge to our online environment.
The Many Faces of Online Slop
AI slop is infiltrating nearly every corner of the internet. A recent analysis revealed how it is dominating YouTube's fastest-growing channels, with nine of the top 100 featuring AI-generated content like zombie football matches and bizarre cat soap operas.
This song from the band The Velvet Sundown was entirely AI-generated.
Music platforms are also affected. A band called The Velvet Sundown appeared on Spotify with a full backstory and a collection of derivative songs, all created by AI. The primary goal is often to produce content that is just good enough to capture views and generate ad revenue for the creators.
It doesn't stop with audio and video. The prestigious online science fiction magazine, Clarkesworld, had to temporarily close submissions in 2024 after being inundated with a flood of poorly written AI-generated stories. Even foundational knowledge sources like Wikipedia are struggling to manage the influx of low-quality AI contributions, which puts a massive strain on its volunteer moderation system and threatens the platform's reliability.
John Oliver's 'Last Week Tonight' takes a deep dive into the issue of AI slop.
The Dangers of a Slop Filled Internet
The consequences of AI slop extend beyond just low-quality entertainment. It has become a powerful tool for spreading misinformation. During Hurricane Helene, for example, AI-generated images of a displaced child with a puppy were used by political opponents to criticize the Biden administration's disaster response. Even if people recognize the content as fake, a quick glance is often enough to fool them and spread a false narrative.
Furthermore, AI slop directly harms human artists and creators. As it floods social media and content platforms, it crowds out original work. The algorithms that drive these platforms often don't distinguish between human and AI-generated content, leading to job and financial losses for creators who can no longer compete with the sheer volume of AI-produced material.
How to Fight Back Against AI Slop
As a user, you can take steps to combat this trend. On most platforms, you can flag or report content that you identify as harmful, misleading, or low-quality. Some sites allow you to add community notes to provide context for other users. While AI has brought us challenges like deepfakes and inauthentic accounts, the rise of AI slop is degrading our entire digital media environment. Giving this problem a name is the first step, but collective action is needed to clean up our online spaces.
