The phrase "AI slop" has entered the lexicon with remarkable speed, which is what happens when a problem announces itself so loudly that even the people causing it cannot pretend not to notice.

A constellation of recent surveys has confirmed what anyone with a browser and a pulse already suspected: audiences are growing weary of content that feels as if it were assembled by algorithm rather than written by a human being who has, at some point, experienced weather. The Reuters Institute's 2026 Digital News Report found that trust in AI-generated news answers has fallen to 20 percent worldwide, against 37 percent for news produced by the old-fashioned method of reporters making phone calls. The influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy (a name that suggests its founders have a sense of humor about their industry, or possibly none at all) found that preference for AI-generated creator content has dropped 44 percent since 2023.

The numbers continue in this direction. A Fractl survey conducted this spring found that the share of consumers who consider AI helpful fell from 82 percent to 54 percent in a single year — a decline that media executives might describe as "concerning" before returning to their meetings about how to deploy more of it.

In the news business specifically, audiences say that AI labels make them trust a story less (what, you were expecting the labels to say "Extra Trustworthy"?).

The platforms, of course, are now scrambling to position themselves as the solution to a problem they helped create, which is a familiar dance on the digital stage. YouTube and Substack have begun making noises about targeting AI slop, though the precise mechanisms remain somewhat vague.

It is worth noting that the industry's relationship with artificial intelligence has followed a pattern that students of Madison Avenue will recognize: enthusiasm, followed by overdeployment, followed by consumer backlash, followed by solemn pledges to do better. The cycle tends to repeat.

Original story published in Fast Company: "YouTube and Substack are targeting AI slop"