AI Slop Is Polluting The Internet
This AI-generated image spread widely after Hurricane Helene in 2024, often used to spread misinformation. Image source
Have you ever scrolled through your social media feed and seen images that look like a strange mix of real photos and computer graphics? From the bizarre, like Shrimp Jesus, to the deceptively realistic, like the viral image of a little girl with a puppy during a flood, you've likely encountered a growing online problem: AI slop.
What Exactly Is AI Slop
AI slop is a term for low-to-mid-quality content—whether it's video, images, audio, or text—created using artificial intelligence tools with little to no concern for quality or accuracy. The appeal for its creators is clear: it is fast, easy, and incredibly cheap to produce. Producers of AI slop typically flood social media platforms with this content to capitalize on the internet's attention economy, pushing aside higher-quality material made by human creators.
Over the past few years, the presence of AI slop has noticeably increased across the web. As the name implies, this digital junk food is not good for the overall health of our online environment.
Where Is AI Slop Found
AI-generated content is rapidly taking over some of the internet's most popular spaces. An analysis by The Guardian revealed how AI slop is dominating YouTube's fastest-growing channels, with nine of the top 100 featuring AI content like zombie soccer games and bizarre cat soap operas.
Music streaming services aren't immune either. You might come across a new band on Spotify like The Velvet Sundown, complete with a fictional backstory and generic songs, only to discover it's entirely AI-generated. In these cases, the goal is often to create content just engaging enough to attract clicks and views, generating ad revenue for the creators from platforms that monetize content.
It's not just for entertainment, either. The ease of generation has led to a flood of low-quality submissions to online publications. Clarkesworld, a science fiction magazine, had to temporarily close submissions in 2024 due to being overwhelmed by AI-written stories. Even collaborative resources like Wikipedia are struggling to combat low-quality AI contributions that threaten the integrity of its community-moderated system.
The Real-World Harm of Fake Content
AI slop isn't just annoying; it can be actively harmful. During Hurricane Helene, AI-generated images of a displaced child and her puppy were used by political opponents to criticize the presidential administration's disaster response. Even when content is obviously fake on closer inspection, it can still spread misinformation by fooling people who only give it a quick glance.
This flood of content also hurts real artists and creators. It can lead to job and financial losses as their work is buried by mountains of low-quality, algorithm-friendly slop. Social media platforms often don't distinguish between human-made and AI-generated content, displacing creators who rely on these platforms for their livelihood.
What Can Be Done About AI Slop
As users, we are on the front lines of this issue. It's becoming increasingly important to be vigilant for deepfakes, inauthentic accounts, and now, piles of AI-generated junk that degrade our shared digital spaces.
Where possible, you can take action. Many platforms allow you to flag content that you find harmful or problematic. Some services have features like community notes that allow users to add context to misleading posts. For the most harmful content, reporting it directly to the platform is often the best course of action.
While the technology continues to evolve, so must our awareness. At least now there's a catchy name for the digital dreck we're all trying to avoid.
