Tech experts are optimistic that a new term can shed light on the damaging impact of carelessly automated AI webpages and images.
Your email inbox overflows with spam, your letterbox with junk mail. Now, your web browser faces a similar issue: slop.
“Slop” refers to the artificial intelligence-generated material indiscriminately uploaded to the web for public consumption.
Unlike chatbots, slop lacks interactivity and seldom aims to address users’ queries or meet their needs.
Instead, it primarily exists to mimic human-generated content, capitalize on advertising revenue, and divert search engine attention to other sites.
Much like spam, hardly anyone desires to encounter slop, yet the economics of the internet incentivize its creation. AI models churn out vast volumes of text or images, catering to every search query, saturating the internet with shareable content. Even if only a fraction of users engage with the material, the cost of creation is justified.
However, like spam, slop’s overall impact is detrimental. Users waste valuable time sifting through it to find relevant content, outweighing any profit for slop creators.
Developer Simon Willison, an early proponent of the term “slop,” emphasizes its significance. He believes that having a distinct term like “slop” can raise awareness about the issue, similar to how “spam” highlighted the negative implications of unwanted marketing messages.
Slop becomes particularly harmful when it disseminates inaccurate information. For instance, an AI-generated Microsoft Travel article once listed the “Ottawa food bank” as a must-see attraction, highlighting the problem’s severity.
AI-generated books and images further exacerbate the issue, with mushroom foraging books offering dangerous advice and social media platforms flooded with nonsensical images.
Tech experts like Jason Koebler believe that this trend reflects what he calls the “zombie internet,” where a mishmash of bots and human-altered accounts erode social connections.
Social media platforms, including Facebook, are taking steps to identify AI-generated content. However, mistaken identification of ads as AI-generated slop poses challenges for the advertising industry.
While tackling email spam required extensive cross-industry collaboration, addressing slop presents greater challenges. Big tech companies like Google are introducing AI-generated answers to search results, blurring the lines between authentic and AI-generated content.
Despite efforts to curb slop, its proliferation continues, posing a growing challenge to internet users and content platforms alike.
Source: theguardian.com
