The internet is drowning in AI slop. Heres how we got here.
In recent discussions surrounding the impact of generative AI on social media, the term “AI slop” has emerged as a descriptor for the low-quality, mass-produced content that floods our feeds. Defined by Quinnipiac University technologist Adam Nemeroff, AI slop refers to “low-to mid-quality content” created with artificial intelligence tools, often lacking accuracy and artistic merit. This phenomenon has become increasingly prevalent, with a recent study by SEO firm Graphite revealing that 52% of articles online are generated by AI. As social media platforms become inundated with this type of content, users are left sifting through a sea of mediocre posts, videos, and images that lack the creativity and discernment typically associated with human-made content.
The reasons for the proliferation of AI slop are manifold. Firstly, the ease of creating such content means that individuals and brands can produce it at an unprecedented scale, often prioritizing quantity over quality. Internet culture researcher Aidan Walker notes that the low barrier to entry encourages creators to churn out large volumes of material, leading to a scenario where even a small fraction of engaging content can garner attention. However, this has significant implications for the overall quality of online spaces. As users encounter more AI-generated material, they may find themselves increasingly frustrated by the overwhelming amount of “junk” that clutters their feeds, making it difficult to discover genuinely interesting or valuable content.
Despite the drawbacks, it’s essential to recognize that not all AI-generated content is inherently bad. AI can be a powerful tool for creating memes, generating quick voice clips, or even assisting in content creation. The issue lies not in the technology itself but in how it is utilized. Many creators leverage AI to produce content that is merely a commodity, designed to capture fleeting attention rather than foster meaningful engagement. As social media continues to evolve, the challenge will be finding a balance between harnessing the potential of AI and maintaining the quality and integrity of our online experiences. As Walker aptly points out, the danger of AI slop is not just its prevalence, but the degradation it brings to our collective digital landscape, where users must wade through a morass of uninspired content to find the gems worth their time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC9f7vlMm00
If your feed is inundated with
AI
slop these days, you’re not alone. “Slop” is a squishy, subjective term — it depends entirely on what you think looks cheap, lazy, or low-effort. Still, the vibe people are describing tends to be the same: mass-produced content, shoddily plopped into the feed, neither discerning nor pleasurable. Why should AI output be any different than grayish cafeteria slop?
Generative AI has been feeding social media since its inception, but the shift has recently become more pronounced. We’ve covered
this great
slopification
at Mashable. Heck, there’s a laundry list of
just
animal-based AI slop we’ve covered:
fake animals “caught” on surveillance tapes
,
emotional support kangaroos
, musicians with
critter companions
, or heavy machinery
“cleaning” barnacles off whales
.
So, the obvious questions are: How much AI slop is there, really, and why?
How much AI slop is out there?
There’s no definite way to know how much AI slop is out there, and your mileage may vary on what constitutes slop.
For what it’s worth,
AI slop was defined
by Quinnipiac University technologist Adam Nemeroff as “low-to mid-quality content — video, images, audio, text or a mix — created with AI tools, often with little regard for accuracy.” And there has been some research conducted on AI-generated content online. Notably, SEO firm Graphite
published a study
last month that found 52 percent of articles online were generated by AI. Graphite CEO Ethan Smith said you could glean some knowledge about other types of content from the study.
“Do I think that ad copy is generated with AI? There’s probably a good amount of that,” Smith told Mashable. “There’s probably a lot of social media posts that are AI-generated.”
He added you’d probably see more AI-generated tweets — text is easy to generate, after all — and a medium level of AI content on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Even if 52 percent of the internet were AI-generated content, that’s at least below at least
one expert’s 2023 prediction
that it’d be 90 percent by 2025.
Still, it’s prevalent enough that everyone with an internet connection has encountered AI-generated content out there that’s obvious and, well, sloppy. Researchers at Amazon Web Services have found, for instance,
that large swaths of the internet
are poorly done, AI-generated translations. In other words, slop begets slop in different languages.
It’s clear that if you’re not prompting chatbots carefully, the output remains subpar. It’s why you see AI-generated comments that make no sense or trending videos
with nonsensical, non-sequitur lists
that
really
feel like AI.
SEE ALSO:
Why meaningless lists are taking over your FYP
So, there’s no
exact
figure for how much slop we’re seeing, but you can certainly feel it. You notice swipe after swipe.
“My suspicion would be that every person who is into social media, on average, when they open their phone and scroll one of these apps, they’re going to see a slop reel,” said Aidan Walker, an internet culture researcher.
Scrolled a bit of TikTok for the first time in a while and oof. It’s at least a third all crap genAi videos now. I didn’t much care for it before that anyway for a number of reasons but at least the staged slop was human made before.
— Leigh (
@newbabyfly.schism.org
)
October 31, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Wowww youtube sure is being swamped by artificial crap.
I listen to lots of citypop and holy crap it’s just so much ai music slop being pushed out.
— Silver 😵💫🐶🧠✨ (
@spacepupsilver.com
)
November 19, 2025 at 3:26 AM
There is a lot of AI slop on instagram reels
— LoudLauraElena (
@loudlauraelena.bsky.social
)
October 20, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Why is there so much slop?
AI slop is everywhere because it’s easy to create, and because “slop” in this context describes content made fast, at scale, with little risk or care.
“Because there is such a low bar to entry, it kind of made it a lot more possible for people not just to produce content, but to produce it at volume,” Walker said. “Take a bunch of shots at the target and, inevitably, if you post 100 videos, one or two of them are going to get some traction.”
Not that social media was ever a sacred space — though
there was a time
it was good — but we should consider what
that much
AI slop does to our collective online experience. What becomes of a platform that requires you to wade through mountains of junk to find the jewels?
“The proliferation of this slop and the opportunity cost of it — the real estate, the mind-share it takes up on a platform — that’s the danger,” Walker said. “It degrades these online spaces.”
SEE ALSO:
TikTok wants to help you spot AI on the platform, filter it out
Consider
people’s complaints
about what AI
has done to the quality of Google search, and then extrapolate that to your website of choice. That’s not to say all AI-generated social content is bad. AI can make memes in a snap or generate a voice clip for a joke. The tool is neutral; the intention behind the output is what shapes its quality.
Lots of slop is
created by people hustling for a dollar
. Its content is meant to fool you just long enough to grab a sliver of your attention. It’s a commodity, not a craft. And crucially, labeling it “slop” is about how it feels to the viewer, not some objective failing.
“Nobody’s really a fan of these AI slop accounts. They all blend together,” Walker said.
And that’s the real sensation of a feed overwhelmed with AI-generated content. It blends. It blurs. It feels grabby but artless — a morass, a muck. In a word, for many people, slop.
