Slop
Have you noticed that everyone seems to be talking about slop these days? There are fashions in words, and this one has become very fashionable indeed.
My impression is that it started with descriptions of many of the products of AI. Now that I look it up, I see that is true but that it began in 2025:
Merriam-Webster’s human editors have chosen slop as the 2025 Word of the Year. We define slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” All that stuff dumped on our screens, captured in just four letters: the English language came through again.
The flood of slop in 2025 included absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, “workslop” reports that waste coworkers’ time… and lots of talking cats. People found it annoying, and people ate it up.
“AI Slop is Everywhere,” warned The Wall Street Journal, while admitting to enjoying some of those cats. “AI Slop Has Turned Social Media Into an Antisocial Wasteland,” reported CNET.
It’s a pretty apt word for that sort of thing. But the use of the term has spread so much that the expression itself threatens to become … slop. It’s used for poor arguments, for obfuscating BS, for bad research, for Arday’s doctoral thesis, for anything and everything in the communication field that a person doesn’t like.
Slop is great for use against ai slop AND human slop.
I look forward to ai getting better, so most ai stuff is not slop.
The Big Tech folks should be required to have identification about what is ai generated.
I saw a trailer of a Grok made Odyssey, and I can imagine a point where folk can argue whether an ai or human movie is better.
The future ai metric to watch will likely be Intelligence per $.
https://x.com/ArthurMacwaters/status/2087572037456089094?s=20
I’ve never thought any of Neo’s great work has been slop, unlike many other writers I read.
I watch live news and sports and very few other videos. This protects me from slop.
Slop, the definition “for Arday’s doctoral thesis”
That was cruel.
@Ray — Cruel, but appropriate.
Orwell’s prolefeed was better, and much it composed by machines:
Julia worked on the mechanical computers:
All I could think of was Little Pink Houses by John Mellencamp:
“And there’s a woman in the kitchen
Cleanin’ up the evenin’ slop
And he looks at her and says, hey darlin’
I can remember when you could stop a clock”
My parents used to refer to the chamber pots they used when they were young as slop jars.
The slop is temporary, its lack of appeal obvious.
We are not far off from when A.I. generated images, dialog and plot are all indistinguishable from prior human efforts.
Spencer Pratt’s ads in the LA ‘contest’ showed promise of that coming reality. At that point, Hollywood is toast. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.
Prediction: within another generation or two, personal A.I.s will be as common as our cell phones today. You can buy one today on Amazon for $4k.
Musk is working on a ‘brain chip’ and it was recently announced that “China has beaten Elon Musk’s Neuralink to market by securing the world’s first commercial approval and carrying out a successful clinical implantation for an invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) called NEO.”
It is much less ambitious than Musk’s by a factor of ten.
That however is not the big point.
Musk’s Nueralink intends to weave 1000 strands of tiny wires into the brain.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/jesuslevel-technologies-china-beats-elon-musk-to-launch-worlds-first-commercial-brain-chip/news-story/ad8fb1f508e4ad6ef80bbf46911b8827
Besides the obvious future dangers listed in that article, instant communication with your personal AI will become common and at least initially, will give those that can afford one a massive advantage over those without one.
It’s a Brave New World and perhaps those of us who won’t live to see it… will be the lucky ones.
“It’s so easy to get all caught up
In the fast pace of this modern age
Makes you wonder if we’re making progress
Or just losing who we are along the way”
Don Williams, Back to the Simple Things, Reflections
I spent yesterday evening listening to various Himari Yoshimura recordings. This one, at age seven, is cute. Look at the way she strides out, pony tail swinging, and plants herself like a Japanese archer, then plays an excerpt from the Paganini violin concerto #1. There are prodigies, and then there are the prodigious prodigies, she is the latter. https://youtu.be/YipD8Npugvg?si=c82-CD_CHh8qeC0x.
One year later: https://youtu.be/Cge_FzH_oZs?si=n0Rh0HECBuvfpcPk Wow.
Never been a Star Trek fan – though I did like the idea of the Combadges and Transporter Console Sliders/Buttons when I watched…
Remember gravitas?
Breaking!
Beloved Neo
Breaks her silence
To question , without evidence, origination of slop popularity.
These days, words explode in popularity with amazing speed. Then they get misused or overused to utter banality.
Nothing is selected or chosen anymore; it is *curated*.
No one is fooled anymore; he is the victim of *gaslighting*. Worse, gaslighting doesn’t mean merely fooling someone; it means fooling them into thinking they are going crazy.
I prefer this Slop, courtesy of the great Charles Mingus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHI0rkR53Tw
I’m partial to any Ella Langley SLOP
I hate the “without evidence” phrase. No Democrat ever makes an accusation “without evidence”, but Republicans, especially Trump, do it constantly!
When did this phrase make its appearance?
Ps. If NPR ever told the truth, the “without evidence” construct would be useful to highlight when they were lying. But instead you just have to imagine whether their lips are moving, and that’s the tell!
Slop Detector: Spotify to Label AI-Generated Artists Starting Next Month
“What do you mean, ‘Ew!’? I don’t like slop!”
Tonight’s menu: Slop with swill.
Tomorrow’s menu: Swill with slop.