Slopocalypse Now
We recorded 6 claims from this post. 5 were checked against evidence. 1 can’t be checked. Read the post at its source.
Claims from this post (6)
In the order they appear in the post. Each quotation is the speaker’s words in this post. A label such as “Supported” or “Can’t be checked” is the claim’s current assessment; its page has the evidence and the reasons.
Assessment: UnresolvedSaid
“That has, of course, only gotten worse. Much worse, as Science reported today.”
What we tested: Generative AI's degradation of science has gotten much worse since early 2024.
Assessment: UnresolvedSaid
“The problem of course is that some significant fraction of that science will be wrong, because of the inevitable tendency of LLMs to hallucinate.”
What we tested: Because LLMs inevitably hallucinate, a significant fraction of science produced with them will be wrong.
Assessment: SupportedSaid
“But science is far from alone. AI slop is everywhere. It’s in journalism, law, music (which Nick Cave once called “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human”), politics, education, you name it.”
What we tested: AI-generated slop is pervasive across journalism, law, music, politics, education and other domains.
What happened: The newspaper admits that its published summer supplement recommended nonexistent books generated with AI. This establishes a concrete journalism example. (Chicago Sun-Times / Chicago Public Media, )
Assessment: Can’t be checkedSaid
“Cesspools of automatically-generated fake websites, rather than ChatGPT search, may ultimately come to be the single biggest threat that Google ever faces. After all, if users are left sifting through sewers full of useless misinformation, the value of search would go to zero—potentially killing the company.”
What we tested: Cesspools of automatically-generated fake websites, rather than ChatGPT search, may ultimately become the single biggest threat Google ever faces, because if users are left sifting through sewers of useless misinformation the value of search would go to zero, potentially killing the company.
Assessment: UnresolvedSaid
“The AI industry magic sauce of “scaling” hasn’t made the enshittification situation better; it has made it worse.”
What we tested: Scaling of AI has worsened, not improved, AI-induced enshittification.
Assessment: SupportedSaid
“He still prefers “enshittification” to “slop”, but the problem is both serious and ubiquitous no matter what you call it.”
What we tested: The problem of AI slop/enshittification is serious and ubiquitous.
What happened: Shows AI-generated content was present in most new web pages in April 2025. This supports 'widespread'. Caveats: the measurement uses Ahrefs' own detector, and most pages were mixed human-and-AI rather than pure AI. (Ahrefs, )