Ask HN: Is there hope against slop?
Long time HNer here, mostly lurker. Developer turned agent steerer yada yada yada, you all know the story.
I'm writing because I think we are missing something important in the discourse on slop. The realization that occured to me recently is that it is simply not possible for media (social, tranditional) platforms to ban and clean the mess of AI generated content — and for some reason I expected them to act on it solely on the sheer amount of nefarious, fraudolent and ill advised AI generated content posted.
I now personally think they wont and can't fix the situation. For one, because there's a great quantity of content that is AI-assisted or AI-generated which actually brings value to their platforms, and secondly because their incentives are (from my standpoint) backwards.
We are sliding on this slop-e incredibly fast, and is ridiculous to expect people to recognize and flag (either directly or by simply not interacting with) AI content in order for capitalistic demand&offer mechanics to kick in. Even if people would have this intention (and they don't appear to) it would be an arms race against even better models (and processes) that produce even more realistic content.
What I ask HN is: what hope is there against the slop avalance we are exepriencing? Is it even possible to exit from this situation? A new kind of platform is possible?
I was in high school in 2002 when a video series called Homestar Runner became popular. My favorite episodes had Strongbad answering emails. There was also a very popular short video around that time, a black and white cartoon called "Rejected" by Don Hertzfeldt with a stick character standing next to a cereal bowl and repeatedly saying, "My spoon is too big". Later in that same video another character announced over and over, "My anus is bleeding!"
As a teenager I found that stuff to be funny, but I'm sure my parents would've considered it internet slop. If my parents' generation had the ability to moderate at that time, I doubt they would've allowed a cartoon about a bleeding anus.
I'm not sure if there's a direct correlation here but my general point is humans will likely continue to find irreverent things enjoyable no matter how they're created and distributed. I like HN specifically because it prohibits AI posts, and only found it recently due to my dissatisfaction with Reddit. Others may not care as much and perhaps begin to enjoy their AI slop media of choice.
People will migrate to closed or moderated platforms (discord, facebook groups, streams, real life). There will probably come to be some universal law of the internet about how much a community can grow before it becomes a target for the slop machine.
Do not use smartphones if you want at least sometimes not to be faced with slop. What about original question, I hope one day the humanship will gone and all resources of AI will going to be utilized for working on science and math fields. That will be the true end of slop.
No, but the problem isn't new with AI. Spam and slop are the same word. LLMs have made it much cheaper to create personalized spam for each user and have legitimized the ecosystem to the point it's not illegal to spam people with LLM content any more (because spam laws only apply to email and physical mail).
As someone who stepped away from gaming about a decade ago because of the handmade slop every major company was and still is shoveling, hope is relative.
Can you hope for better outcomes for yourself? Absolutely; seek out the groups you enjoy and hobbies that relax you, especially tactile experiences. Build RSS feeds and other forms of decentralized data management. Maybe disconnect from the Internet and do some kind of physical activity if you don’t already.
However, better outcomes for the masses? They won’t move to new platforms; Bsky and Mastodon proved that. And how would new platforms meaningfully change the “slop” issue? As you stated it’s just a game of whack-a-model, not to mention AI can be a value-add. When faced with a stubborn populace and worsening conditions, it’s best to leave than stay in the mudpit trying to lead people away from what they want.