The slop discussion is interesting because it challenges a person to say what, exactly, is objectionable, or (alternately) laudable? People have a gut intuition that slop is bad, but why is it bad? Or perhaps: under what circumstances?

Based on what I've seen, most people have trouble articulating their reasons; and when they can, their reasons are usually dumb and grossly inconsistent with their other revealed preferences.

It's a good exercise to do, if you haven't thought about it.

I can acknowledge that AI slop will have appeal without thinking if watch it

Cuando entró en Youtube prefiero esos de animalitos graciosos o de creatividad casera ya que yo misma inventó con lo que ya tengo y veo si me funciona 😂

Slop in internet memes is acceptable. Memes have always been a kind of slop: low effort is the name of the game. And you're not passing it off as something it's not. It's also obvious to everyone it's AI—there's no dishonesty involved.

Outside of that context, I would be careful. You're risking extreme reputational damage if you're supposed to be an expert, you're getting paid to write an article on this topic you're an expert in, and here you are submitting some slop. I've unsubscribed from newsletters, back-clicked from blogs, and even muted Nostr users when I notice them offering slop... which by now in 2025 is fairly easy; we're all familiar with the "GPT style."

Take this message that I just handwrote like a normal person. I could've just gone over and generated the following text instead:

Scoresby, this “AI‑slop” boom is a reminder how algorithmic recommendation loops can turn low‑effort content into massive traffic—even when the videos feel empty. It seems many viewers are just scrolling, letting the platform surface whatever gets the most clicks, not necessarily what’s meaningful. The sheer subscriber and view counts suggest there’s a sizable audience, perhaps driven by curiosity, novelty, or simply the endless scroll habit. It’s a weird mirror of our attention economy—if the numbers are genuine, it does make us rethink what captures mass interest online.

But this would have been retarded, and once you've earned the reputation of being retarded, it's hard to shake off.

I watch a lot of cat videos / shorts

Its the same reason why people like Transformers or any Mr Beast video to some people its not trash, it really intuitive creators going to work on what the public wants.

I notice that most AI slop videos on my YouTube Shorts feed have very clickbaity thumbnails. Could it just be that?

Take a look at this paragraph I wrote for my SN research paper, explaining why tips (zaps), when enabled, may be a better measure of engagement than views:

The exchange of value between content creator and content consumer tends to be mediated through indirect mechanisms, such as ad revenue, visibility, and reputation---often referred to as "clout"---which may indirectly benefit the content creator's endeavors outside the discussion platform proper. The indirect nature of these mechanisms may result in misaligned incentives between content creators and content consumers. For example, content creators may be more incentivized to create content that readers will click, rather than content that readers will actually read, digest, and ex-post appreciate the creator for producing.

At least these are somewhat funny and creative.

I call slop the perfect voice reading over investment video that goes round and round without making any sense. Seems like few notice that it's a waste of ones attention.

It is very hard process and needs lot of entertainment.