The New Term For Unwanted AI Generated Content
Artificial intelligence is one of the most hot-button topics in the tech space, and it’s only going to become more divisive as the technology continues to advance. Like it or not, major tech companies have already implemented AI to a significant degree, and it’s now worked its way into the daily lives of anyone using Google. Now, a new term has arisen to describe the phenomenon of unwanted AI intruding in your activities – slop.
AI Content Is Now Slop
As user @deepfates on the X platform, people are starting to use slop to describe the AI-generated results search engines like Google have been spitting out when you search for anything. The term “slop” is fitting since these results aren’t always accurate, and they’re now prominently featured at the top of your search page, causing users to scroll to get the actual and accurate results they want.
Deepfates likens the phenomenon to how we refer to unwanted emails as spam, and it seems like a term that could catch on soon as people start to get annoyed with AI-generated content that they didn’t ask to see.
Marvel Caught Using AI
As artificial intelligence becomes more pervasive in other industries, the term slop could be used to refer to many different forms of AI-generated content. One recent infamous example of AI use occurred when Disney used it on the Disney+ Marvel show Secret Invasion for the show’s intro thematic. The results didn’t look great, and people who watched that intro before each episode could rightfully say they witnessed slop.
The New Face Of Customer Service
Artificial intelligence also has the potential to displace employees in many industries, with recent theories suggesting the customer service industry could be one of the first to go. Customer service through major corporations can be frustrating, so being subjected to AI support agents would be even more maddening. Referring to AI support agents as slop doesn’t seem like a far-off reality.
AI Has Some Good Qualities Too
Of course, artificial intelligence certainly has valuable use cases, such as expediting medical research. The problem lies more in the fact that since artificial intelligence is becoming more widespread and accessible, it’s being abused to an annoying degree. People don’t want to be subjected to sub-par AI slop when they’re just trying to look up some information on Google or watch a TV show.
Slop Is Only The Latest AI Term But It Won’t Be The Last
Artificial intelligence slop has even entered the music industry lately, with rap mega-artist Drake using the AI-generated voices of 2Pac and Snoop Dogg on a diss track aimed at Kendrick Lamar. The 2Pac estate viewed this as slop, as they quickly made Drake take the song down. Still, it’s pretty crazy to see how mainstream the technology has become in just the last year.
New terms and slang about artificial intelligence will continue to become part of our regular lexicon. Slop is the latest, but it won’t be the last new term we come up with to describe aspects of the technology. It’ll be interesting to see what other words we come up with.
