Slop is exactly the kind of word AI hates.
It’s short, evocative, and pleasingly descriptive. Four simple letters conjuring images of nasty, yucky, gooey, muddy sticky material. Inedible edible creations. Primordial soup, filled with the decaying essence of life.
AI, on the other hand, likes concepts that can be deployed over and over again, their impreciseness hiding any divergence from the intent of the prompter. Visibility. Readiness. Recognition. Reliability. Credibility. Accountability.
And yet, slowly then surely, a consensus built around this as a descriptor for our modern age, the symbol of societal viscosity.It’s been named word of the year by Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, and Macquarie Dictionary.
This merits further discussion or explication.
Let’s eschew the typical metaphor deployed in these types of articles – you know, the “I know it when I see it” phrase – in favour of a deeper review of the topic.
But it’s merely a word, is it? Instead, “slop” is best thought of as a slur, deployed to denigrate the quality of a wide variety of the visual and written arts. We have slop articles, slop books, slop Reels, TikToks, and YouTube shorts. Even slop parliamentary and Congressional speeches.
What constitutes slop is changing. Three years ago, before the word and concept had been fused together, the output of early video models was Lynchian nightmares. See: Will Smith eating spaghetti. Several generational leaps later, the differences are getting more and more subtle. Even many boomers have cottoned on to the fact that the proliferation of Shrimp Jesus art is not from human hands.
To me, it seems that the common AI signifiers are shibboleths but do not fully encapsulate the problem. After all, I can easily deploy every AI cliché in a way that will make it clear this piece is not slop—truly. It’s not simply the construction; it’s the predictability of deployment.
It started with artificial intelligence, sure, but it’s largely become an all-encompassing term. I’m not the only person to annoy the large fan group of the Canadian gay hockey drama Heated Rivalry by referring to its sports-rom-com melodramatic plot as “slop.” Other pieces of art that have been struck with the same scarlet letter: Coca-Cola and McDonald’s soulless AI holiday ads, the Glasgow “Willy Wonka” experience (the Ur-text of real-world slop), Drake’s sheer volume-over-quality output, and the CGI grey-goo finale of Secret Invasion.
Part of it is the novelty of having a new insult. How often were things reflexively called “mid” three years ago? The other speaks to a genuinely interesting linguistic innovation, since this broad theory of “slop” encompasses a field of things both bordering on unnaturalness and fundamentally hollow.
The word “soul” feels relevant here as a probable antonym. Something cannot be both slop and contain a soul. This is an emerging piece of quantum mechanics.
And here, we come to a generalised theory of slop. Slop makes few demands on the reader. It contains a uniform density, a pleasant environment to stroll through. This creates a “fluff” effect where the text sounds professional but, upon closer inspection, says very little that is actionable. At a certain point, its consumption becomes truly mindless, allowing the mind to start searching for and expecting the next chunk of material.
Easy in, easy out. We need to fight slop in all its forms because our primary purpose on Earth is more than mere survival. Humans in the matrix need a baseline of entertainment so they can serve as effective energy sources; we have no such imperative.
Instead, use the predominance of slop to surprise and challenge. Obfuscate; delay pleasure. Hint at the thesis. Consider leaving the reader in an ambiguous state. Take a risk. From this framework, this year’s descent into the hellswamp is merely an opportunity.
Jon Schubin is Cognito’s global head of content
