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Railroads enabled people and goods to move from one place to another much easier and faster.

AI enables people to... produce even more useless slop than before?



At this point I'm taking the word "slop" as a sign meaning "I really didn't think this through and I'm just autocompleting based on a gut feeling and the first word that comes to mind".


Well unfortunately for you, it has a precisely defined and well-understood meaning for all those not covering their eyes and ears in denial. Quoting Merriam-Webster:

> Digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.

Chosen by the editors as word of the year, by the way.


"Slop" in English means "liquid junk, rubbish, tripe". No need to call for Merriam Webster's help.

The point is that AI can produce slop (as people do, too), but it's just silly to imply that everything it can produce is slop. That's just lazy, sloppy thinking.


Sure. I'm fully aware that AI can be useful, especially once we move past LLMs.

However, I do think that the majority (or mainstream) use of GenAI today is indeed not very useful or even harmful. And I do think that something like railroads are more useful by orders of magnitude.


> I do think that the majority (or mainstream) use of GenAI today is indeed not very useful or even harmful.

What are you basing this opinion on?


The results that I'm seeing of what people are doing with GenAI. I don't really see the promised productivity gains.


> but it's just silly to imply that everything it can produce is slop

that is why people use slop qualifier, rather than not using qualifier


That's an easy way out, isn't it?


Using thought terminating clichés in general is, and that can include "slop".


It wasn't meant to be thought terminating. If anything, it was a bit provocative.


The irony of atacking thought terminating clichés while defending slop


I have no love for slop. But I also don't write off the whole technology as only being good for slop.




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