GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Culture
MORE SLOP I SEE
A 30 year old man from Wellington has just accepted the “Te Aro Services to the Community Award”, for his tireless work pointing out “AI slop” to people on social media, just in case they couldn’t tell.
Regan Reynolds says it is his mission to label all AI-generated social content “slop”, regardless of how interesting or entertaining it might be.
“Doesn’t matter what it is. If it’s made with AI, then it’s slop. And anyone using AI is a sloppy, sloppy slop merchant,” said Reynolds during his acceptance speech.
“Facebook is just such a slop factory these days. I can spot an AI-generated image or sequence of text from a mile away. Most people can’t see all the slop everywhere but I can.”
Reynolds says to get through a heavy workload of adding the slop label to every comment section that deserves it, he sets aside hours each day. “Mostly I’ll just include it as part of my regular scrolling schedule. It doesn’t take much to stop and write a comment pointing out how sloppily AI something is. Most people just don’t make the effort I guess,” he told reporters later.
Reynolds has also taken it upon himself to earnestly label some opinions “right wing”, selflessly keeping people safe from unapproved views.
“Some people just don’t understand how dangerous and subtle these misinformation accounts can be. Lots of stuff they say can sound really normal and common sense unless you’re smart like me.”
Mr Reynolds declined to give any examples of “slop merchants with yucky thoughts”, saying he did not want to give them “a platform”.
More to come.
