There's AI slop and anti-AI slop [LWN.net]

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 20:38 UTC (Sat) by rbranco (subscriber, #129813)
In reply to: There's AI slop and anti-AI slop by dskoll
Parent article: Nesbitt: Protestware for coding agents

> Except, that's not realistic. When AI slop crowds out human-written books, human-written books are hard to find (I bet most people use Amazon to discover new books, and when they see 20 AI books to 1 human book, it makes human books much less discoverable.) And so humans end up losing money. This is not just theoretical; I know authors who have complained about this very phenomenon.

Most of us value good books. In my case printed books, not e-books. Right now I don't seek out novelty in books so I prefer rereading... I plan to rebuild my collection when I retire. Same with my music collection, gone after moving to another country 3 times. And let's not blame "AI" for killing music. Rock music was already dead before Spotify. I definitely see AI doing techno like Jim Morrison predicted.

> I disagree with that premise. AI is different for a number of reasons that I go into in depth here (for example: the fact that it's based on theft of human-created output.) I expect we'll never agree on that, though.

Once you realize it was inevitable that machines would eventually digest all human culture, you stop complaining about it. The hype will eventually subside and LLMs will be used where they make sense and life goes on.

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There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:06 UTC (Sat) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (5 responses)

Once you realize it was inevitable that machines would eventually digest all human culture, you stop complaining about it.

Ah yes, the tech bro "it's inevitable, so suck it up" viewpoint. Where have we heard this before?

Your book preferences are interesting, but do not address the fact that human authors are losing their livelihoods to AI slop "authors". Maybe you don't think that's a problem, but recall that AI requires oodles of human-generated content to generate its content. Once human-authored content is effectively killed off, there will be nothing for AI bots to steal except for the output of other AI bots, and if you think that positive feedback loop won't make AI even worse than it already is, you are naive.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:34 UTC (Sat) by rbranco (subscriber, #129813) [Link] (1 responses)

> Ah yes, the tech bro "it's inevitable, so suck it up" viewpoint. Where have we heard this before?

You're taking me out of context and the "tech bro" term is boring, as is everything adjacent to critical theory.

> Your book preferences are interesting, but do not address the fact that human authors are losing their livelihoods to AI slop "authors".

I honestly find this hard to believe without some evidence to back it up. Blame it on the book preferences of those buying slop books.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 22:35 UTC (Sat) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

human authors are losing their livelihoods to AI slop "authors".

I honestly find this hard to believe without some evidence to back it up.

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There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 22:13 UTC (Sat) by muase (subscriber, #178466) [Link] (2 responses)

The coachmen want their carriages back; and woe betide anyone who doesn't bribe their guild – https://i.imgflip.com/7d0abu.png

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 22:40 UTC (Sat) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

Sure, I'm retired (though not a man) and I very probably am tilting at windmills here. I recognize that my anti-AI stance is unlikely to carry much weight.

But I have my retirement nest egg and I'm OK. It's the next generation who are going to be destroyed by AI, and if they think that calling anti-AI people Luddites or equivalent, then fine... they'll get what they deserve, I suppose.... similar to how we let social media damage society without any meaningful resistance.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 31, 2026 9:55 UTC (Sun) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link]

Emily Dickinson anticipated your retort:

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.