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It is increasingly difficult to escape the slop, the pablum generated by artificial intelligence which has crept into the habits of our colleagues. slide decksour social media feeds, our mediaeven our real estate advertisements.
“Garbage seeps into everything,” write the editors of Merriam-Webster, who chose the term “slop” as a reference. Word of the year 2025. “As vase, mudAnd mud, slope has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch.
That’s why I’m taking a moment to look into my crystal ball and make one of those dreaded end-of-year predictions: 2026 will be the year of “100% human” marketing.
Listen to me.
AI “slop” tends to conjure up harmless images of “Jesus Shrimp” or big eyes soap operas about cats. But slope imagery is becoming more and more sophisticated, creating a crisis of confidence even among those of us who grew up with the Internet and consider ourselves experts, or at least decent observers of fake stuff. The usual trappings – artificial lighting, poorly rendered hands, incongruous background images – have been largely toned down.
A casual scroll through TikTok now feels like a test: did you spot the fake or did you mindlessly double-tap on this video of bunnies bouncing on a trampoline? (You know you’ve fallen for it! We all have!)
It’s a disgusting feeling to be fooled. And a semblance of a negative reaction has already begun.
Last month, radio and podcasting giant iHeartMedia launched a “human guaranteed” slogan, promising users it would will not use “AI-generated personalities” or listen to AI-generated music.
The San Antonio-based audio company’s own research found that 90% of its listeners — even those who use AI tools themselves — want their media to be created by humans.
“It’s important for us to remember as marketers that we are in a very delicate position during a turbulent time, both in America and around the world,” said Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeartMedia. said in a statement this fall. “Consumers are not just looking for convenience, they are looking for meaning. »
iHeartMedia is not alone. Earlier this month, editors at The Tyee, an independent news site in Canada, published its decision to adopt an AI-free policy, saying they would not publish “AI-written or AI-generated journalism.” (Granted, this is a small newsroom, and few if any major outlets have made similar commitments. But several high-profile figures newspapers those who rushed to adopt AI are now facing the consequences, including the Washington Post, which recently published a widely criticized article. Podcast bot in error.)
In Hollywood, where AI is often considered an existential threat, some creators are driving the point home with the public. “This show was made by humans” read the credits of “Pluribus“, the hit Apple TV series from “Breaking Bad” creator Vince Gilligan. Others are actively opposing “Tilly Norwood” the AI-generated “actress” whose creators swear Tilly is more of a digital experience and not an effort to replace human actors.
On Pinterest, the go-to site for fashion mood boards and wedding inspiration, the company’s embrace of AI is alienating its most dedicated users, as my colleague Ramishah Maruf reported last month. And across New York City, subway ads for the wearable AI recording device known as “Friend” have been targeted by incessant vandalismprompting passersby to scribble messages such as “AI is not your friend” and “talk to a neighbor.”
An Artist Was So Fed Up With The Decline Of The Internet She Created Slope Escapera browser extension that filters web searches to only include results from before November 2022, which is before the release of ChatGPT.
Conclusion : I could be wrong! So far, the decline in AI is minimal compared to all American companies who are convinced that it is the future of the entire economy. Ultimately, we’ll have to see if anti-AI marketing experiments yield real results.
Yet I suspect that the more Wall Street and senior executives speak out about the brilliance of AI and its limitless potential to increase productivity and even creativity, the more many will see it as a trap.
So far, our experience with chatbots and image generators has been mixed. Of course it can be fun to tell Sora to make a video of my dog flying with Santa Claus above the Parisian sky. And yes, sometimes a chatbot is better than a regular web search when you need travel recommendations. But it’s also a deepfake generator that can quickly amplify misinformation (as xAI shows). Grok did it in the Bondi Beach shooting Sunday) and attract people delusional, sometimes fatal spirals.
Consumers and creatives may just be starting to cry uncle. Or at least prefer some things still made by human hands.