Slop is Good

I’ve been thinking about all the generative AI slop that’s appearing, especially with tools like “Reimagine”, and I think it’s going to be a great thing for the open web.

Why?

Because Google is unwittingly shooting itself in the foot in a way that will change the character of the web.

How?

The web has always been built on trust.

The very core of the Internet is built on trust: I try to connect and someone else accepts because I’m using a trusted protocol.

Trust is also an important part in the way people work together: a recommendation from a friend is a hell of a lot more important than any other media (including TV, print, and the web). We also negotiate once a level of trust has been established: just like our protocols.

That trust in people extended to companies that built their business on the Internet. We trusted Amazon to deliver our books. We trusted Google to deliver answers to our queries. We trusted The Onion to deliver us the lols. We trusted Twitter to connect with friends.

And all was good because it was built on top of trusted protocols.

Twitter was the first to break the human trust. Its popularity attracted a lot of bad actors: scammers, bots, and billionaires. And when things started falling apart, many lost trust in the service.

And just like a Nazi bar, when you can’t trust a place, you stop visiting. You find new places like Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky that are welcoming with people you know and trust.

Now we have Google shitting in their own pool.

They are generating things that don’t exist. Pizza with glue. Pigs falling from the sky. Even Nazi SpongeBob.

As these generative technologies get better, you will be less likely to trust what appears in your search results. This change will happen at an exponential rate thanks to slop being generated from other slop.

Search engines you can’t trust because they are cesspools of slop is hard to imagine. But that end feels inevitable at this point. We will need a new web.

What?

The human component of the web won’t change. People will need answers that they can trust. Folks on the web are also resourceful; they always have been.

Something new will fill the gap and give people what they need and want. And my guess is that the open web, personal reputation, and word of mouth will be key components of that thing.

A better thing, thanks to slop.