Simple scams involving artificial intelligence. Examples of AI slop.

While browsing Facebook, I came across the following post, which was a little story accompanied by an AI-generated video. In this case, even the watermark indicating that the video was AI-generated had not been removed.

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Although some people immediately noticed the obvious manipulation, a few people in the comments were fooled. And the question is, how many of the 50,000 people who saw the post believed it was credible and clicked the link.

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The link in the comment leads to a page on a .ru domain. When entering the page, a typical “cookies”/GDPR consent pop-up appears. Most people agree to everything by default in order to see the page faster (although it should be remembered that you do not have to agree to anything to access websites. Most often, this concerns consent to collect visit statistics or save part of the page on the user’s device, thanks to which the page loads faster on the next visit; by default, therefore, there are several or a dozen separate consents.

In this case, the website asks for several hundred (!) different consents.

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There are two main problems here. First and foremost, such pages clutter social media and spread fake information. But there is also a bigger problem: the linked page collects huge amounts of data from users, which could be used in harmful ways. In this case, the linked page simply collects huge amounts of data, whereas similar posts may lead to more harmful websites.

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What is AI slop?

AI slop is a term describing low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence that is flooding the internet. The name comes from the English word “slop,” meaning swill or cheap junk, which perfectly captures the nature of this phenomenon.

The problem gained momentum with the growing popularity of tools such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other text and image generators. Suddenly, anyone could produce hundreds of articles, social media posts, or illustrations in just a few seconds. The result? The internet began to drown in a mass of content that looks decent at first glance but reveals its emptiness upon closer analysis.

AI slop can be recognized by several characteristic features. Texts often sound artificially smooth, are full of generalities and repetitions, and lack an original perspective or deeper analysis. This is particularly evident when reading a couple of texts created on the same topic.

AI-generated images have typical defects, such as strangely looking hands, inconsistent backgrounds, and overly smoothed textures. Although AI is making fewer and fewer mistakes with hands, for about a year now, creating images in which the hands are rendered correctly has not been a problem at all.

Hundreds of identical posts with motivational quotes against a sunset background, generated in just a few minutes, appear on social media.

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The most alarming thing is that AI slop not only clutters the digital space but also displaces genuine, valuable creative work. Search engine algorithms struggle to distinguish high-quality content from mass-produced repetitions. True creators, journalists, and artists are losing visibility as they try to break through a wall of cheap, automated publications.

Not every piece of content created with the help of AI is AI slop. There are creators who make creative videos using AI. Some graphics created with the help of artificial intelligence require extensive knowledge and many hours of work. Although generating a specific image takes only a moment, the real work here consists of selecting the best graphics from collections of several thousand images and skillfully mixing prompts. The same applies to texts. AI can help with proofreading or write parts of the text (e.g., instead of pasting in ready-made definitions, you can use AI for this and adapt them to the text).

The phenomenon of AI slop raises questions about the future of the internet and creativity as a whole. Are we still able to appreciate the value of human work, authentic experience, and a unique perspective? Or will we grow accustomed to a world in which most of what we see is merely a superficial imitation of genuine content?