AI Slop Is Taking Over the Internet—and Our Classrooms
From fake events to flooded libraries, here’s how educators can help students resist the rise of low-quality AI content
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Welcome
I’m at ISTE this week and would love to connect with fellow educators, librarians, and technologists! If you’re here too, come say hi—I’m always happy to chat about all things AI and education.
Now, let’s talk about the latest AI buzzword making waves: AI Slop.
“AI Slop” might sound like a joke—but it’s not. It’s the very real flood of low-quality, misleading, and sometimes completely fake AI-generated content online. And this week, we’re diving into what that means for schools, libraries, and students—with a little help from John Oliver.
Watch the “AI Slop” segment from Last Week Tonight — it's both hilarious and disturbingly accurate.
What Exactly Is AI Slop?
John Oliver defines AI slop as the result of “mass-producing content with no care, no oversight, and often, no truth.” It includes:
Entire books written by AI and uploaded to Amazon with fake author bios
Recycled, hallucinated articles that now dominate search engine results
AI-generated fake events on Facebook (yes, people showed up to fake fireworks)
Ebooks flooding Hoopla and public libraries with autogenerated “nonfiction”
The Financial Times even named “slop” the word of the year for 2024.
Why It Matters for Schools
AI slop isn’t just annoying—it’s dangerous. It:
Undermines student research
Pollutes classroom tools with misinformation
Creeps into school library collections and reading apps
Makes students question whether anything online is real
It’s the next wave of pink slime journalism, and it’s coming for your curriculum.
📘 Lesson Plan: “Real or Slop?”
Grade Level: 7–12
Objective: Students will evaluate and question online content, especially AI-generated materials.
Materials Needed:
4–6 short excerpts: some real, some AI-generated
Optional tools: GPTZero, NewsGuard, Media Bias/Fact Check
Activities:
Discussion Starter:
Play the clip. Ask: Have you ever read something online that felt fake or robotic? What tipped you off?Slop Detectives:
Students evaluate excerpts. Which are “slop”? What clues helped them decide?Quick Write:
What makes a source trustworthy in 2025? How can you tell when something was written by a person who cared?
AI Ethics Corner: The Liar’s Dividend & the Slop Feedback Loop
Let’s talk about what happens when no one trusts anything anymore.
📌 What Is the Liar’s Dividend?
The liar’s dividend is the idea that once people know content can be faked—through AI, deepfakes, or misinformation—they begin to doubt everything, even the truth.
Bad actors can say, “That article? That video? That evidence? It’s fake”—even when it’s not.
✅ Liars escape accountability
🚫 Truth becomes harder to prove
🤯 Public trust erodes
And when the internet is flooded with AI slop, it becomes easier for people—especially students—to dismiss everything as noise.
We must teach students:
That not all content is created with care
That AI models reflect the slop they’re trained on
That critical thinking isn’t optional anymore—it’s essential
📚 AI Reading List
🎥 John Oliver: “AI Slop” Segment – Excellent class-friendly clip with humor and urgency
📰 Financial Times: “Word of the Year – Slop” – Why AI junk content defined 2024
📖 Battling Misinformation in the Age of AI – My pink slime journalism newsletter—perfect parallel to AI slop
✅ Final Thoughts
We’re not powerless. Librarians and educators can:
Expose slop
Teach discernment
Model thoughtful, human-centered content creation
And we can help students rise above the AI flood—not by banning tools, but by training thinkers.
📘 P.S. My new book is out!
AI in the Library: Strategies, Tools and Ethics for Today’s Schools
Now available on Amazon → https://a.co/d/aRupXMy