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Slop

en.wikipedia.org

35 points6515 comments

What is this complete alternate reality? I've never seen a single time slop used to refer to AI images, but to refer to garbage mass produced Hollywood/Amazon/Netflix corporations. Bad AI art is called "AI slop". One of the implications are that both are garbage, to the point where you can even wonder which one is worse (it depends on which aspects).

This article somehow does not mention it...

In the article "Talk" section there is this:

>Requested move 3 December 2024

>Slop (artificial intelligence) → AI Slop

>When the term "slop" is used to refer to low-quality AI content it usually is called "AI Slop". Most of the sources this page cites follow this naming convention. Searching for "slop" on the aggregator Google News and Hacker News also show this pattern. I'd estimate 80% of the usage of the term in online circles is "AI Slop", 10% call it "slop" but mention "AI" later in the sentence (in cases like headlines), and 10% just say "slop".

Indeed. The uses I’ve seen of slop are mostly in regard to media produced by large companies that is unremarkable and derivative, meant to be consumed and quickly forgotten, making way future media that is practically identical. AI generated media is in some sense the apex of slop, it is able to be churned out much more quickly and without any sense of originality.

I think the examples of slop they use - shrimp Jesus - are bad examples. Because, while they're definitely bad art, they're intentionally bad.

A better example of slop would be someone creating AI art of actual Jesus (or an actual shrimp) and using that in place of real art.

An even better example would be the fake baby peacocks that took over Google image search for a while.

I don’t think shrimp Jesus was initially intentionally bad.

They were farming interactions on fb pages and… well… people on fb seem to like AI images of Jesus.

> An even better example would be the fake baby peacocks that took over Google image search for a while.

I hadn't seen this before and just checked and they are still there.

The disambiguation page has more definitions. Slop is not a new term, it's meant food scraps for centuries, but it's taken off recently in the context of AI.

> Slop (clothing)

> Slop (artificial intelligence), a derogatory term describing low-quality artificial intelligence-generated content or media

> Slop is the common name for household food scraps

> Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure, in aviation, a procedure for avoiding collisions

> a popular term for Backlash (engineering)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slop

Slop commonly refers to low quality food in Britain. Literally it means pig swill (which basically nobody has ever seen these days) but figuratively could be any food perceived to be low quality.

Pretty sure it's not just a British term. This American dictionary gives mostly the same meaning.

Slop: thin tasteless drink or liquid food

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slop

LLMs seem to have been purpose-built for cheaply and easily creating an endless stream of novel garbage content designed to addict and influence, or at least distract.

Slop is the only thing AI (which is not and will never be "I") is truly good at, which is why it will devour the world.

to be honest, I don't think this is just a problem with AI. It seems like people create slop across almost any media platform. The number of videos I get recommended of someone breaking a glass bottle on a staircase is ridiculous.

It's just zoomer slang. It applies to more than just AI images. Its meaning ranges from low-quality, to undesirable, and can even be used as a cognate of "for the birds".

The politics section list some niche use by Facebook users and ignores that it was derived from antisemitic term describing media.

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