AI Slop: In and Out of Work

If you found “Digital Litter” irritating and lacking in quality, “AI Slop” must have a similar tug at your sensitivities. 

I’m not speaking about AI as a “friend” AKA friend.com and NYC’s public callouts (OOH), though symptomatic. 

Even though “the company’s CEO, Avi Schiffmann, says he did it on purpose.

“I know people in New York hate AI, and things like AI companionship and wearables, probably more than anywhere else in the country,”

It’s a pretty interesting way to drive attention BUT it is succeeding in bringing people together around the idea that human-to-human interaction is irreplaceable. In reality what I am referring to is much more insidious and aggravating workers and managers alike, because the desire has become to “pump” out work, which drives “quantity” over quality.

This is becoming an increasing issue IRL and at the workplace.

Context of 9-to-5

Harvard Business Review notes:

• 40% (of employees its survey) report having received workslop in the last month

• Employees who have encountered workslop estimate that an average of 15.4% of the content they receive at work qualifies

On LinkedIn, we see the complaints daily re: AI generated “thought leadership”, and it’s erasing trust in professionals using it as an avenue to generate content that fails to offer a POV and/or is undifferentiated.

Can AI be assistive in creating content to adhere to formatting, tone and other norms that may be of importance to an organization? Yes.

Should it replace strategic thinking and creation by workers themselves? NO.

Critical Thinking requires time and energy, and what’s instead being rewarded and championed is “quantity” and “quickness”.

Will this continue to be allowed in workplaces? Time will tell.

Generative Virality Online

When it comes to our favorite social media platforms and sites, we know it’s driving ad revenue, which isn’t exactly helping to course correct.

“AI is really superpowering spam," said Jason Koebler, a co-founder of the tech news website 404Media who has been following the rise of AI slop. "The whole point is to hit the algorithm in some way — to basically win the algorithmic lottery, get people to like, comment, share, and hopefully, go very viral."

However, what this does to creators is limit their reach and truly hurts creativity. What’s more, this “AI Slop” gets proliferated, and in turn creates a wheel of mediocre content. 

What Do We Do?

We need “Engagement Rules” for AI deployment, and ethics-based governance, because we will otherwise drive distrust (in content & people) and penalize original thinking.

In the meantime, here are some work-specific recommendations from Forbes:

1. Start small. Begin with specific, low-risk tasks to test how AI fits within your business processes.

2. Set measurable goals. Identify what success looks like with AI, whether that’s improved efficiency, reduced errors or increased output quality.

3. Integrate AI gradually. Don’t overwhelm your team by applying AI to everything at once. Introduce it into areas where it can have the most immediate impact.

4. Monitor and refine. Regularly check the AI’s performance and adjust how it’s being used to ensure it aligns with your business goals.

5. Keep a human touch. Remember, AI may provide insights or automate tasks, but the creative, strategic and empathetic aspects of work should remain human-driven

I’ve never been a “hypebeast”, and believe we need to take a step back and be driven by our values, so we can strike a better balance 🤷🏽‍♂️

Besides, the data already details that the current path isn’t working…