The future reality of your social feed could be a lot less real.
Can I interest you in a video of Sam Altman stealing GPUs? Or a sasquatch terrorizing two of your favorite BI reporters?
No? Too bad. AI slop is here whether we like it or not.
BI’s Katie Notopoulos, who understands internet culture better than anyone I know, breaks down the rise of short-form, AI-generated videos invading our feeds.
If you’re wondering what exactly AI slop is, think of it as weird, nonsensical content that’s quickly generated with artificial intelligence. The concept has been around for a bit — Remember “Shrimp Jesus”? — but it’s getting more prevalent (and better) with the advancement of AI tools.
What makes this latest round of AI slop interesting is that, in OpenAI’s Sora 2 case, you can incorporate you and your friends into it. (Just to get this out of the way: Axel Springer, Business Insider’s parent company, has a commercial agreement with OpenAI.)
Unlike Meta’s “Vibes” feed, which is an endless stream of pointless AI videos that it seems no one is too pumped about, Sora is an endless stream of pointless AI videos that you can be the star of.
That distinction might seem silly, but it could be why Sora 2 gained a lot of momentum early on.
But some AI companies want to stop the slop.
While OpenAI and Meta are happy to lean into the chaos, Perplexity is heading in the opposite direction.
The buzzy AI startup made its $200-a-month browser free for everyone on Thursday. Part of the motivation for the move, CEO Aravind Srinivas told BI’s Charles Rollet, was “to build a better internet.”
“I think slop is fundamentally going to be easier to create now, and it’s going to be hard to distinguish if something is AI or human on the internet,” Srinivas said.
(Srinivas’ version of a better internet coincidentally might include more people using his browser than rival Google Chrome, but the point still stands.)
Hollywood is another barrier for slop. The fast-and-loose creation has opened the door to some content that looks awfully familiar to characters and brands you might recognize. And as BI’s Peter Kafka pointed out, that could lead to some nasty legal battles.
And then there are the privacy concerns that come with handing over your likeness to the AI gods.
Ultimately, though, user demand will decide AI slop’s fate. If people continue to enjoy creating wacky videos of themselves and their friends, the medium will find a way to succeed.
And as BI’s Sydney Bradley and Geoff Weiss noted in their discussion about Sora 2, the emergence of AI slop comes as social media feels less social. (Did you know we’re not supposed to post stuff on Instagram anymore? I didn’t. How embarrassing.)
We’ll just have to wait and see if AI slop pops … or flops.
