Is all AI content slop?
I asked Claude to:
Analyze this thread. Then explain it like a Malcolm Gladwell New Yorker article. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45820872
It gave me a beautiful, engaging and insightful essay about a 300+ message debate about AI vs humans on routine tasks. https://claude.ai/share/60c5810f-5c81-4970-8026-a24bf89c3392
Is this slop?
One phrase stood out:
There’s an irony here that the commenter doesn’t quite state but implies beautifully: we’ve spent so long celebrating automation because humans are imperfect that we’ve forgotten we also value humans because they’re imperfect.
Note: it’s something “the commenter doesn’t quite state” and yet Claude inferred it. “Beautifully”.
Is this slop?
Another paper, The Hidden Curriculum, is quite readable as papers go. https://mgcuna.github.io/website/JMP_latest.pdf
But look at how it begins:
Despite dramatically expanded access to selective U.S. colleges, first-generation students persistently trail continuing-generation peers in GPA, internship attainment, and early-career outcomes.
Here’s how Claude’s Malcolm Gladwell essay begins: https://claude.ai/share/81d7ff3c-db89-4c9f-8423-82358fb660a3
When Sara Martinez arrived at UC Berkeley as a freshman, she did everything right. She showed up to every class. She completed every reading assignment. She took detailed notes. She studied harder than most of her peers. By every visible measure, she was the model student.
I read every word of the essay. The paper has value, but the essay has accessibility.
Is this slop?
History repeats this pattern.
- The printing press displaced calligraphers.
- But typography emerged as an art.
- Film displaced theater but gave us montage, screenplay, and editing.
- CAD displaced drafting but birthed parametric design.
- 3D printers are displacing workshops, creating toolpath sculpture and generative objects.
Maybe AI slop is the start of new arts?
