The Slop Machine and how to avoid it

Off Topic
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AI Slop has become a whole industry in recent years and a constantly growing problem.

But here is the thing. The whole Slop industry is mostly created, encouraged and financed by social media giants like Google (YouTube), X, Meta (Facebook, Instgram, …).

They provide the tools to create Slop (LLMs & AI services), the platforms to distribute Slop and the incentives and monetary rewards (ad incomes) for the whole industry. Also they are earning the most money from the whole thing. Creators pay them for AI services and increased visibility. The audience pays with wasted time and attention and generates ad revenue.

To escape the Slop, I see only one way:

  • Escape all forms of personalized feeds and the platforms providing them.
  • Find primary sources instead. Follow creators directly, via RSS for example. Choose news outlets that have a humans as their editorial staff and present the same news to everyone.
  • Choose small communities with their own platforms (like this one) that do not monetary benefit from engagement.

This will provide the following benefits:

  • All your sources will have a reputation to uphold.
  • All your sources will be known by you. You know their political, moral and social stands.
  • All your sources will be the same for everyone who uses them and you can meaningfully exchange opinions about them. (With a personalized feed you can’t, because yours is different from every other persons feed.)

As long as you are using platforms who are delivering “a personalized experience” you are subject to their algorithms and what ever they want to feed you for maximum engagement and the will feed as much AI Slop to you as they successfully can.

How do you deal with AI Slop? Do you have other strategies, that work for you?

If you are following the same strategy I use, what tools do you use to make following reputable sources (sources that have to uphold a reputation) convenient for you?

3 Likes
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I use this ones:

But this is pretty nuclear approach

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Exactly one method:

  1. AI (re)drafts slop
  2. I update a reference library containing the highest quality information, curated by me alone
  3. I inject AI with manually curated, relevant context
  4. Cycle repeats

The entire system works on my terms and in my favour, and I am responsible for sourcing the information, not AI or third-parties.

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AI-Slop block-lists would counter AI-Slop served by web search (google). But your search provider could filter for AI-Slop pages to and that would have the same effect.

I don’t believe Goggle would be much help there, because they have an interest, that at least everyone building a business on Gemini to have success.

Still the most AI-Slop people consume is presented by Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, TickTock, … via their algorithms.

A personal feed does not have uphold a public reputation and can present any BS as long as it keeps you engaged.

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Having a personal local AI to filter and compress information for me would be nice, something predictable because it follows my instructions …

That’s definitely better than any social media algorithm optimized for maximum engagement.

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Thanks for linking to https://github.com/alvi-se/ai-ublock-blacklist

I checked and there’s a really good section: “How websites are added”: A list about/guide to how to spot AI generated websites.

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That is the exact opposite relationship with me and AI.

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Try Dolphin. Local open model, completely stripped from “I can’t assist with that”

But for things that sane and holy, if you use AI, use it for yourself. It doesn’t need to be published.

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Methodology has transcended:

  1. I give the highest relevant context with pure cognitive memory
  2. AI (redrafts) better slop
  3. Cycle repeats

No state files nor reference library is used anymore.

Any good openrouter interface which is private and secure?
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added both! Thanks for sharing!

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