The “AI slop” label has become a tool for digital rejection

An analysis of online discussions on Reddit and Hacker News shows a sharp increase in accusations of using AI to generate text. Researchers studied nearly 25 million comments from 2023 to 2026 and found that the use of the term “AI slop” has increased significantly. This term is no longer a technical verification tool, but a universal label used to discredit suspicious messages. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .

The study's main conclusion is that accusations of low-quality AI content have little correlation with the objective characteristics of the text. Instead of determining whether a text was actually written by ChatGPT or other language models, users are employing this term as a tool for social distancing. Texts that are overly formal, excessively structured, or appear “too correct” for online communication are often unfairly cast under suspicion.

Scientists have also focused on the phenomenon of “epistemic injustice.” In this situation, an author is accused of using AI due to their stylistic features, and their ideas are devalued. Such accusations are more common on platforms with technical audiences like Hacker News, where norms of caution regarding AI content formed early. On Reddit, this process has a more mass character.

As a result, the boundary between human and machine text is becoming not just a technical, but a social issue. The “AI slop” label has become a mechanism for protecting group identity and excluding “outsiders.” This leads to the rejection of even high-quality texts if they are suspiciously formal, and a decrease in the level of trust in online communication.