We Need to Start Bullying AI Slop Again

[kylan11]

Intentionally provocative title, but the feeling is real.

What I’ve seen happen lately is either A) we made peace with the fact that most content in written form (or in verbal form with a prepared script) is entirely the product of OpenAI or Anthropic and we’re okay with it or B) we’re not okay with it but we see it as inevitable and have stopped making noise about it.

I’m not some luddite; I’m very passionate about AI, I even self-host my own local models and use it extensively for work, research, or simply bouncing off some thoughts. But I think in terms of creative work and self-expression we’ve lost something huge and it’s just so boring and annoying I can’t put in words (maybe I’ll ask GPT to write it for me).

Much has been written about the slow erosion of our cognitive capacities as producers of creative work (and it’s certainly the bigger concern here), but imho not nearly enough has been said on the consumer side: the dystopian feeling of discovering essentially the same 2-3 data-centers, wearing a different hat, behind 90% of the internet.

Maybe it’s better to stay blisfully ignorant of the classic landmark LLM-generated writing patterns and wonder why everyone became a witty wordsmith all of a sudden.

“It’s not X, it’s Y”. Boom! What a zinger.

As a consumer you used to be able to KNOW someone through their writing. Their cadence, their obsessions, the jokes they make twice, the things they always overcomplicate, what their influences were.

Now it’s all one big grey paste, utterly anonymous. What’s even the point? Why should I hear OpenAI cosplaying as you? I’ll talk to OpenAI directly, thank you very much. It feels more honest, and unlike your shitty YT video it’s bidirectional so I can at least ask further questions.

Rant aside, here’s my point: please call it out. Comment “AI slop” and move along. Hopefully people upvote/like it, and the “author” begins to realize that mindlessly prompting your way to assembly-line non-stop content creation amounts to little more than looking like a braindead clown.

If it’s not a solution, it’s at least a way to make people take the time to hide it better or dress it in their own style, which is a small win in my book.