
By Adam Nemeroff
You’ve probably encountered images in your social media feeds that look like a cross between photographs and computer-generated graphics. Some are fantastical – think Shrimp Jesus – and some are believable at a quick glance – remember the little girl clutching a puppy in a boat during a flood?
These are examples of AI slop, low- to mid-quality content – video, images, audio, text or a mix – created with AI tools, often with little regard for accuracy. It’s fast, easy and inexpensive to make this content. AI slop producers typically place it on social media to exploit the economics of attention on the internet, displacing higher-quality material that could be more helpful.
AI slop has been increasing over the past few years. As the term “slop” indicates, that’s generally not good for people using the internet.
AI slop’s many forms
The Guardian published an analysis in July 2025 examining how AI slop is taking over YouTube’s fastest-growing channels. The journalists found that nine out of the top 100 fastest-growing channels feature AI-generated content like zombie football and cat soap operas.
Listening to Spotify? Be skeptical of that new band, The Velvet Sundown, that appeared on the streaming service with a creative backstory and derivative tracks. It’s AI-generated.
In many cases, people submit AI slop that’s just good enough to attract and keep users’ attention, allowing the submitter to profit from platforms that monetize streaming and view-based content.
The ease of generating content with AI enables people to submit low-quality articles to publications. Clarkesworld, an online science fiction magazine that accepts user submissions and pays contributors, stopped taking new submissions in 2024 because of the flood of AI-generated writing it was getting.
These aren’t the only places where this happens — even Wikipedia is dealing with AI-generated low-quality content that strains its entire community moderation system. If the organization is not successful in removing it, a key information resource people depend on is at risk.
Harms of AI slop
AI-driven slop is making its way upstream into people’s media diets as well. During Hurricane Helene, opponents of President Joe Biden cited AI-generated images of a displaced child clutching a puppy as evidence of the administration’s purported mishandling of the disaster response. Even when it’s apparent that content is AI-generated, it can still be used to spread misinformation by fooling some people who briefly glance at it.
AI slop also harms artists by causing job and financial losses and crowding out content made by real creators. The placement of this lower-quality AI-generated content is often not distinguished by the algorithms that drive social media consumption, and it displaces entire classes of creators who previously made their livelihood from online content.
Wherever it’s enabled, you can flag content that’s harmful or problematic. On some platforms, you can add community notes to the content to provide context. For harmful content, you can try to report it.
Along with forcing us to be on guard for deepfakes and “inauthentic” social media accounts, AI is now leading to piles of dreck degrading our media environment. At least there’s a catchy name for it.
Adam Nemeroff is Assistant Provost for Innovations in Learning, Teaching, and Technology at Quinnipiac University.

JimboXYZ says
Agreed, the scams & frauds of AI will far exceed any benefits from it. Seeing how fake news is the internet of things, it fits right in with what has been going on for any propaganda. My gut feel is artists are collaborating with AI for the music part of it, so in that regard they are getting paid ? Take KISS, they collaborated with ABBA for Avatars & their content. That might eventually be both artists/bands immortality. Would anyone want to see a concert that’s more like a PPV cartoon/reality TV show when the original member s of KISS have long since passed away ? I know I won’t pay for that like streaming audio/video of AI generated nonsense. The movie Avatar, haven’t seen it, have no desire to ever watch it. Maybe I missed out, maybe not. I think a lot of why theater attendance is non-existent any more is because of the inflationary cost prohibitive aspect of the show. People don’t have the time to go to a theater and escape from reality. And to see an entire production of a cast of unreal characters & a plot line like that ? Just me, being at a live concert was what that experience was about. A simulcast globally ? That might be greener than a nand physically touring city to city, continent to continent, but is it anything more than what anyone can do online with YouTube concert videos already ? I don’t want to be against AI, but in the wrong hands and look what we end up with, the mistrust for the entire human race as a whole in steroids ?
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67611691
Laurel says
I don’t do “social media,” but I do watch a lot of YouTube and it’s there all right. Just click on one *story*, and you are bombarded with more slop. I do wish that YouTube would lighten up on its algorithms. What I do, when bombarded with algorithm content, is go to settings and clear out viewing history and content. Then, I go back and pick something real, that I like, and it is a reset.
Suggested shows are “Break it Down” with Mayim Bialik, “Star Talk” with Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and “Diary of a CEO” with Steven Bartlett. Then you’ll fill up your YouTube with worthy content!
Pogo says
@Forgery, imitation, impersonation, exaggeration, caricaturization, et cetera
… probably started in concert with — creation itself.
Buyer beware: