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Is slop new or is it just a continuation of SEO, blogspam, and “content”? I love that we have a new better word that captures the nuance, but it doesn’t feel li

by Swizec 2y ago

Is slop new or is it just a continuation of SEO, blogspam, and “content”? I love that we have a new better word that captures the nuance, but it doesn’t feel like a new phenomena.

whyage 2y ago
Unlike slop, SEO content can't be totally off-base, or search engines will rank it low. The ecosystem keeps it annoying but consistent with the facts, at least.
thih9 2y ago
I'd guess both: a continuation and its own new flavor. It's better than what automated scripts could produce and cheaper than human generated copy. It has expertise of the whole Internet and its reasoning capabilities are often worse than those of a three year old. Similar for sure, and yet something different.
whstl 2y ago
I'd argue that the strange Gemini answers that were making the rounds of social media are more absurd than what you would see in regular blogspam. But again, they're extremes (and some of the reported screenshots were even fake). On the other hand, there's indeed a lot of popular human-made fake content lately, especially in TikTok, like fake guitar playing and fake nonsensical DIY videos. So it's not an AI exclusive phenomena.
- troyvit 2y ago
  Now I want to go ask one of my AIs to produce some clearly fake content so that I can get boosted on social media for complaining about awful AI.
cj 2y ago
Our company is working with a SEO firm we pay $11k/mo for (who I want to fire). They sent us new copy for our core marketing pages last week, and many sections simply sound non-sensical. As in it just didn't make cohesive sense, and it was clear a human being didn't write (or even review) the content. This is the problem with new AI "slop". In the past, blogspam / SEO spam was at least reviewed and written by a human. Now, we have content getting published straight out of the mouth of text generators. The quality of long-form content from text generators is significantly worse than even mediocre $10/hr copywriters in many cases.

by Swizec 2y ago

Is slop new or is it just a continuation of SEO, blogspam, and “content”? I love that we have a new better word that captures the nuance, but it doesn’t feel like a new phenomena.

whyage 2y ago

Unlike slop, SEO content can't be totally off-base, or search engines will rank it low. The ecosystem keeps it annoying but consistent with the facts, at least.

thih9 2y ago

I'd guess both: a continuation and its own new flavor. It's better than what automated scripts could produce and cheaper than human generated copy. It has expertise of the whole Internet and its reasoning capabilities are often worse than those of a three year old. Similar for sure, and yet something different.

whstl 2y ago

I'd argue that the strange Gemini answers that were making the rounds of social media are more absurd than what you would see in regular blogspam. But again, they're extremes (and some of the reported screenshots were even fake). On the other hand, there's indeed a lot of popular human-made fake content lately, especially in TikTok, like fake guitar playing and fake nonsensical DIY videos. So it's not an AI exclusive phenomena.

troyvit 2y ago
Now I want to go ask one of my AIs to produce some clearly fake content so that I can get boosted on social media for complaining about awful AI.

cj 2y ago

Our company is working with a SEO firm we pay $11k/mo for (who I want to fire). They sent us new copy for our core marketing pages last week, and many sections simply sound non-sensical. As in it just didn't make cohesive sense, and it was clear a human being didn't write (or even review) the content. This is the problem with new AI "slop". In the past, blogspam / SEO spam was at least reviewed and written by a human. Now, we have content getting published straight out of the mouth of text generators. The quality of long-form content from text generators is significantly worse than even mediocre $10/hr copywriters in many cases.