The Politics Of 'AI Slop'

Even if you don’t know what “AI slop” is, there’s a good chance you’ve encountered it basically everywhere you spend time online. Maybe it was those Facebook photos of an LA firefighter rescuing a baby and a bear cub during the wildfires earlier this year. Or it’s in emails from your MAGA aunt with an inspirational story she found online about a group of bikers with a suspicious number of fingers visiting a World War Two veteran in the hospital. Or it’s the President of the United States sharing AI-generated videos depicting the head of the Office of Management and Budget as the Grim Reaper or putting sombreros on House Minority Speaker Hakeem Jeffries. And with the latest version of OpenAI’s Sora app, it’s only going to get harder to know what’s fake — which is bad, because AI imagery is becoming inescapable in our social media feeds and our politics. So to talk more about what AI slop is, why it’s so profitable, and why we won’t be rid of it anytime soon, we spoke with Jason Koebler. He’s the co-founder of 404 Media, a tech-focused independent media outlet.

And in headlines, President Donald Trump sends California’s National Guard to Portland after a federal judge blocks him from sending Oregon’s troops, delegations from Israel, Hamas and the U.S. are in Egypt to discuss a peace plan, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announces yet another strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat off the coast of Venezuela.

Show Notes:

• Check out 404 Media's coverage of "AI slop": https://www.404media.co/tag/ai-slop/
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• For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday