Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated content

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the emergence of the term "slop" as a new term to describe unwanted AI-generated content, similar to how "spam" became the term for unwanted emails. The author is a proponent of using large language models (LLMs) for personal productivity and building applications, but believes that sharing unreviewed, artificially generated content with others is rude. The author proposes "slop" as the ideal name for this anti-pattern and suggests that "slom" could be a good name for the equivalent subset of spam that was generated with AI tools.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The emergence of the term "slop"

1. What is the author's view on the term "slop" and how it is becoming a term of art?

• The author sees the term "slop" as becoming a new term to describe unwanted AI-generated content, similar to how "spam" became the term for unwanted emails.
• The author believes that if AI-generated content is mindlessly generated and thrust upon someone who didn't ask for it, "slop" is the perfect term for it.

2. What is the author's opinion on the use of LLMs and AI-generated content?

• The author is a proponent of using LLMs as tools for personal productivity and building interesting applications that can interact with human language.
• However, the author is increasingly of the opinion that sharing unreviewed content that has been artificially generated with other people is rude.

3. What is the author's proposed term for the equivalent subset of spam that was generated with AI tools?

• The author proposes the term "slom" as a good name for the equivalent subset of spam that was generated with AI tools.

[02] The author's personal AI ethics

1. What is the author's position on using LLMs and AI-generated content?

• The author is happy to use LLMs for all sorts of purposes, but they are not going to use them to produce "slop" (unwanted AI-generated content).
• The author attaches their name and stakes their credibility on the things they publish.

2. What does the author consider a useful baseline for personal AI ethics?

• The author believes that "don't publish slop" is a useful baseline for personal AI ethics.