The literal translation of the word is «slop» — slop, and this is what they propose to call the invasion of unwanted artificial intelligence on the Internet.
Slop mostly functions to create the appearance of content existence, generate advertising revenue, and direct attention from search engines to certain sites.
It’s not just about media, but also about text «creativity». Thanks to artificial intelligence, you can create an infinite number of images and stories for any query, and then add artificial comments. If only a couple of users visit the site and click on the ad a couple of times, the cost of creating them will pay off. But as with spam, the overall effect of a spammy site is negative: wasted time and effort for users who will try to find what they really need among the garbage.
«I think coming up with a name for it is really important because it gives people a way to talk about the problem», — says developer Simon Willison, one of the early proponents of the term «slam». «Before the term «spam» came into common use, not everyone realized that unwanted advertising messages — were bad behavior. I hope that «slop» will have the same impact and make people realize that creating and publishing unverified AI-generated content is bad».
Willison referred to Microsoft’s sensational article created by AI — about the Ottawa Food Bank, which was mentioned as a landmark in the Canadian capital. Other examples include books created by AI (amateur mushroom pickers, for example, were advised to avoid mushroom-themed books on Amazon that potentially contained harmful advice and could lead someone to eat a really deadly mushroom).
It is worth mentioning Facebook, which already had problems with moderation, and with the rise of AI, it drowned in the «slope». Earlier we wrote about a viral photo of «Hollywood Mountain» in California, where tourists really wanted to go, but it turned out to be a fakebut this list has now been supplemented by some rather strange creations (actually, similar to my usual dream) — such as images of Jesus Christ with shrimp instead of limbs, etc.
Jason Kebler of the tech news site 404 Media believes this trend represents what he calls the «zombie internet». The rise of the slop, in his opinion, has turned social media into a socially disconnected space with a «mix of bots, humans, and accounts that once belonged to» people.
Nick Clegg, president of global affairs at Meta, wrote in February that the social network is training its systems to identify artificially intelligent content.
«As the distinction between human and synthetic content becomes blurred, people want to know where the line is», — he wrote.
At the same time, the AI chatbot Meta joined a parenting group on Facebook, saying that he also has a childand even a special one — and shared tips on specialized programs.
The fight against inbox spam has required a huge cross-industry effort and has led to fundamental changes in the nature of modern email, with large providers like Gmail aggressively tracking spammers and employing sophisticated, mostly closed artificial intelligence systems. As for slop, the future is less bright — Google last week announced ambitious plans to add AI results to the top of the search (initially in the United States, and throughout the year in other countries).
Based on the materials The Guardian
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