404 Media: 'Personalized AI Slop Is Destroying the Internet'
https://www.youtube.com/embed/zs47jAwWJcI
Quote: "the AI slop endgame, for social media companies, is creating a hyper personalized feed full of highly specific content about anything one could possibly imagine. Because AI slop is so easy to make and because social media algorithms are so personalized, this means that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube can feed you anything they perceive its users to possibly want. So this means that AI slop makers are exploring ever more niche areas of content. Case in point Facebook AI slop about the horrific and deadly Texas flood. Topical AI content about disasters, war, current events, and news stories are at this point so commonplace that they are now sadly barely notable, and AI-powered 'misinformation' about horrible events are all over every social media feed I can think of. But as we document our descent into this hellhole, I thought some AI slop surfaced on Bluesky by Christina Stephens https://bsky.app/profile/christinastephens.bsky.social/post/3ltmhr2idmk23?ref=404media.co was particularly notable" (Koebler, J., 2025). Point: "…AI is neither artificial nor intelligent. Rather, artificial intelligence is both embodied and material, made from natural resources, fuel, human labor, infrastructures, logistics, histories, and classifications. AI systems are not autonomous, rational, or able to discern anything without extensive, computationally intensive training with large datasets or predefined rules and rewards. In fact, artificial intelligence as we know it depends entirely on a much wider set of political and social structures. And due to the capital required to build AI at scale and the ways of seeing that it optimizes AI systems are ultimately designed to serve existing dominant interests. In this sense, artificial intelligence is a registry of power" (Heath, M., Krutka, D., & Smith Budhai, S., 2026). More: https://newpractices.co.uk/AIslop/ Further: TheNodeProject (20 February 2026). 'Danny Bones - Traitors Freestyle' https://newpractices.co.uk/ReactionaryPolitics/#_vwcxRJQDAA Bibliography: Koebler, J. (2025, 15 July 2025). The Hyperpersonalized AI Slop Silo Machine Is Here. 404 Media. Retrieved 8 January 2016 from https://www.404media.co/the-ai-slop-niche-machine-is-here/ Heath, M., Krutka, D., & Smith Budhai, S. (2026, April 12). 'Ghosts in the AI Machine, Frederick Douglass, and Civics of Tech at AERA'. Civics of Technology. https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/blog/ghosts-in-the-ai-machine-frederick-douglass-and-civics-of-tech-at-aera Crawford, K. (2021). 'Atlas of AI : power, politics, and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence'. New Haven, Yale University Press. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300264630/atlas-of-ai/
