AI Slop–How Every Media Revolution Breeds Rubbish and Art
13 days ago
- #Cultural history
- #AI-generated content
- #Mass production
- AI-generated low-quality content is referred to as 'slop', a term popularized in 2022 and later by 'deepfates' and Simon Willison.
- Mass-produced culture has historical precedents, such as the flood of philosophical writings in ancient times and the chapbooks and broadside ballads in Britain post-Gutenberg.
- Grub Street in the 1700s was known for producing cheap, sensational content, yet it also fostered early freelance economies and mass-print culture, involving figures like Samuel Johnson and Daniel Defoe.
- The 20th-century cinema boom, including nickelodeons and B-movies, produced much low-quality content but also trained future Hollywood legends like Coppola and Scorsese.
- AI-generated slop is problematic due to near-zero production costs, high cognitive burdens, and environmental impacts, necessitating the identification and elevation of standout content.
- Not all AI content is slop; human-guided AI creations can be original and valuable, some even displayed in museums.
- Cultural production at scale inherently includes waste, but it can also yield the seeds of future valuable creations.