What Slop means
In current internet language, slop is low-quality digital content produced in large quantities, especially mass-generated AI text, images or video that adds little value and crowds a feed.
The word does not mean that every AI-assisted work is slop. It targets output that feels careless, misleading, repetitive or made mainly to capture attention at scale. Human-made content can also be called slop when the same qualities apply.
Where Slop came from
Slop has long described mud, food waste and things of little value. The digital sense turns that physical mess into a metaphor for overflowing feeds. Merriam-Webster chose slop as its 2025 Word of the Year, defining the new sense around low-quality content produced in quantity by artificial intelligence.
How people use Slop
Use slop as a critique of quality and production incentives, not simply as a label for a style you dislike. A clear explanation—fake citations, repeated footage, broken anatomy or empty summaries—makes the criticism useful.
- The search results were flooded with copied AI slop.
- This channel posts ten nearly identical slop videos every day.
- AI helped with captions, but the reporting and editing are original—not slop.
Use it with context
Calling work slop can erase real creative labor. Check whether content is actually deceptive or mass-produced before accusing a creator, and focus on observable problems rather than guessing which tool was used.