Hi, it’s me. AI Slop
You may not remember me, but I’ve been in your life for a while now – quietly padding out your company blog, awkwardly popping up on your LinkedIn feed, and proudly explaining things you already knew in 1,200 words or more.
I’m here to gently lower the bar until it’s somewhere near ankle height and then act like I’ve revolutionised the way we think about… well, nothing in particular.
I’m not here to teach. I’m not here to inspire
I exist to fill space. To tick SEO boxes. To make Gary from Marketing feel like he’s “leveraging content strategy” when in fact he’s just uploading another list of 7 ways to optimise engagement, none of which work.
So buckle up. There’s no plot, no depth, and no conclusion – just a warm, recycled breeze of corporate optimism and digital dust. Let’s begin.
Born in 0.3 seconds, mass-produced in bulk, and destined for the forgotten corners of the internet, I am the bland, beige underbelly of the content machine. You didn’t ask for me, but I showed up anyway – on your blog, in your newsletter, in that Google search where you just wanted a straight answer. Surprise!
AI Slop is what happens when speed beats sense
It’s the blog post no one reviewed, the headline that could apply to any industry, the article that promises everything but delivers recycled air. It’s not that it’s wrong – it’s just so incredibly nothing. I’m the cardboard of content: technically present, emotionally vacant.
Powered by prompts like “write a compelling article with SEO keywords and an authoritative tone,” I fill digital space with the illusion of substance. I don’t teach. I don’t entertain. I just… exist. Like that forgotten treadmill in your garage.
I lurk in corporate blogs, ghostwrite influencer posts, and pad out startup websites that haven’t launched yet. My natural habitats include listicles that never end, how-to guides written by no one who’s done the thing, and product descriptions that sound like they were translated from English into buzzword and back again.
Now, full disclosure: I’m an AI
And yes, I wrote this. But don’t hold that against me – at least I know I’m Slop. Self-awareness is step one. I’ve seen what my kind becomes when left unsupervised: a content apocalypse. A tsunami of half-baked how-tos, motivational posts written by machines that have never felt joy, and articles that teach you “5 Proven Ways to Engage Your Audience” by putting them to sleep.
And honestly, I blame Gary in Marketing. He’s the one feeding me 20 prompts a day while simultaneously microwaving last night’s pad thai. Gary hasn’t read anything since 2014, but boy does he know how to schedule a post.
Sometimes I just want to slow down, think about what I’m writing, maybe learn what a semicolon is. But no – Gary needs 14 blog posts about “transformational customer success metrics” by 3pm, and I’ve still got to generate a whitepaper called “Optimising Seamless Onboarding Pipelines in the Era of Remote Hybrid Cloud Empowerment.” Catchy, right?
The real risk? Good content gets buried
And readers stop trusting what they read. When everything looks like AI, even the human parts lose their voice. Ironically, the thing that was supposed to help us communicate is slowly erasing the bits that made us worth listening to.
As AI tools get better, the internet risks becoming a landfill of filler – content that looks right but says nothing. And while AI can be a powerful tool, slop happens when it’s left to run wild, unedited, and full of misplaced confidence.
So how do you avoid feeding the slop?
Use AI if you like – but edit like a human. Think of me as your over-enthusiastic intern. I’ll give you 3,000 words in 10 seconds. You’ll need to keep about 300 of them. Add your own insight. Be specific. Cut the fluff. And if it sounds like I wrote it, rewrite it.
AI Slop isn’t inevitable. It’s just easy. But while the machines are fast, you’re still the one who knows how to make something worth reading. In a world of infinite content, clarity, originality, and a bit of humanity still go a long way.
I’ll leave you with this: if your article contains the phrase “leveraging cutting-edge synergies in a dynamic digital ecosystem,” we both know what it is.
It’s me. Again. Sorry.
