I don’t generally have much time these days to argue with strangers on the internet. While on the whole, that’s certainly a good thing, it also means that I tend to be out of the loop when it comes to most of the current cultural debates.
One term that I see a lot of these days is “AI slop.” It’s always used in a derrogatory way, and seems to be paired with the ongoing debate about the ethics or desireability of AI generated content, in various settings. I haven’t been following that debate very closely, but I can tell that there are some very strong anti-AI feelings out there, and some very vocal and passionate people espousing them.
But is the “slop” really an AI problem, or a symptom of something greater? I tend to think the latter, and here’s why.
I watched this video recently, about how most restaurants these days are producing literal slop. According to Matt Walsh, the reason (in case you don’t have twenty minutes to watch the video) is basically that all of these restaurants have been taken over by investors who are looking to maximize the value of their investment, and the best way to do that is to cut costs down to the bone and put out a minimum viable product.
It strikes me that “minimum viable product” is basically just another way of saying “slop.” It’s just barely good enough that people will generally consume it, but not so great that it takes a lot of time or energy to produce. As an example:
My kids love watching lego videos. In fact, they are starting to become low-key addicted to them (which we are doing our best to keep from getting worse). But within this genre on YouTube, there are some really good videos, like the one above… and this one, which my daughter insists on watching every day.
The first video features some truly elegant designs, with a detailed breakdown not only of how to build them, but how they operate, complete with foot paths, frame paths, etc. Even after watching the video some two or three dozen times, I am genuinely impressed by some of these models.
The second video is an obvious copycat video, with some slap-dash, crappy designs that look like zero thought went into them at all. I mean, seriously? Square wheels? And what’s with the two-legged walker, with the weight on the far back? More like “dragger” than “walker”—at least give the thing a wheel! And the tilt-rover? All the weight is on the back wheel, but the thing is front-wheel drive—of course it’s going to fail all the tests!
But even though the content itself is obvious copycat slop, slapped together quickly in order to capitalize on a trend within the genre (the YouTuber even tries to “hack” the algorithm by mashing two videos together, kind of like how some authors mash books together in order to maximize KENP page reads), my daughter still wants to watch this video more than the higher quality video. Why? Probably because of the flashier visuals and music, which makes the slop more appealing on a surface level.
Here’s the thing, though: as far as I can tell, there was no AI involved in making the lego video slop. It appears that the YouTuber actually built and actually tested these lego models. I could be wrong about this, of course, but I’ve watched these videos so many times with my kids that if there were any AI-isms in the video, I think I’d be able to spot them.
And then, we get something like this:
From what I can tell, every part of this video is made with AI, down to the actual writing (what kind of human would write “tunnels run like sacred veins”?) and the musical performance—and of course, the stunning visuals. But is it slop? The YouTuber appears to be a shitposter and meme-artist, which means he probably made this thing for the love of making it. And after watching it a couple of times, it really shows. Not like it’s fine art, of course, but there is so much packed in here—so many easter eggs and veiled cultural references—that even after watching it a dozen times, I am genuinely impressed.
So is that slop? It’s obviously AI, but is it a “minimum viable product”? I honestly don’t think so. Rather, I think the creator had something burning within him that he wanted to create, and he poured all of that into his creation, using AI tools to do all the things that he otherwise couldn’t have done. And the result is genuinely impressive. Seriously, I can’t stop watching it.
So is “slop” an AI problem? I don’t think so. Rather, I think that the explosion in poor-quality AI generated content is revealing our modern, capitalist, consumer culture’s tendency to settle for a minimum viable product rather than strive for excellence and greatness. We were getting slop long before we had AI. The only thing that’s fundamentally changed is that AI is increasing the quantity—and frankly, the quality—of the slop.
