We need some better terms for GenAI output - "slop" is too benign
Earlier this month, Snail Games put out a widely and justifiably clowned-on genAI trailer for Ark: Survival Evolved's Aquatica DLC. Much reporting on the incident, including my own, used some variation of "slop" in the headline.
This has likely been true for some time, but it made me notice that 'slop' had evolved from a common adjective into the realm of de facto terminology. If you dislike GenAI, you refer to its output as 'slop'. It's become lexi-canonical.
I think we can do better. "Slop" evokes a tepid cylinder of condensed cream of mushroom soup, glumly wibbling in a chipped bowl. When I think of GenAI, I picture something closer to tropical insects laying eggs beneath soft flesh of victims. There's something parasitical and sinister about flaying the skin of artists who've explicitly spoken out against GenAI and then gleefully parading around in that stolen flesh. Slop sounds like Soft sounds like Plop sounds like Globule. It slides down too easy; gets off too lightly.