AI slop

Buzzwords Beginner Also called: slop

Definition

Low-quality content produced with AI, usually in bulk, with little effort or human judgment behind it. The word spread in 2024 by analogy to spam, the name for unwanted email, and covers text, images, video, design, and code. Merriam-Webster named "slop" its 2025 Word of the Year.

In plain English

Slop is what you get when you ask a robot for something and ship the first thing it hands back. Not wrong. Just the same. The same beige, the same three cards, the same “Learn more.” Willison’s test: if it was mindlessly generated and thrust on someone who didn’t ask for it, it’s slop.¹

In the real world

A homepage with a pulsing green dot in the hero and three stat tiles with made-up numbers.
A LinkedIn post that opens with “In today’s fast-paced world.”
An email with an em dash in every sentence and “Hope this finds you well” on top.
Merriam-Webster’s 2025 list: absurd videos, off-kilter ad images, fake news that looks real, junky AI-written books, and “workslop” reports.²

When to use it

When fast and functional is the goal. An internal tool, a first draft, a placeholder page. Nobody is judging the font on an inventory sheet.

When not to use it

Anything a customer sees and judges you on. Your homepage, your proposal, your brand. If the plan is to stand out, the default output is, by definition, the opposite.

Good, bad, ugly

Good: fast, cheap, and it works. A real draft in minutes.
Bad: everyone else got the same draft.
Ugly: it is cheap to make and expensive to wade through. Two dictionaries made it the word of 2025 because there was that much of it.²³

Key facts

Dictionary definition: "Digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence." Merriam-Webster
Word of the Year 2025: Merriam-Webster and the American Dialect Society
The analogy: Spam is to email what slop is to AI content
Not slop: AI output a person reviewed, cut, and chose to publish

Common questions

Is everything made with AI slop?

No. Simon Willison, who helped popularize the term, put it plainly: not all AI-generated content is slop, but content that is mindlessly generated and pushed on people who didn't ask for it is.

Can people tell?

Usually. The same stock phrases, layouts, and image styles repeat across millions of pages, and readers learn to skim past them.

How do I avoid it?

Give the model your actual colors, fonts, voice, and constraints before it starts, then cut what it adds. That is context engineering.

References

Slop is the new name for unwanted AI-generated contentSimon Willison's Weblog · 2024-05-08View source
2025 Word of the Year: SlopMerriam-WebsterView source
AI slopWikipediaView source