Power users of OpenAI’s ultrapopular AI chatbot ChatGPT have picked up a brand new nickname, and it’s unflattering.
As spotted by media critic and writer Rusty Foster on his excellent Today in Tabs newsletter, people who constantly use ChatGPT to do virtually anything have garnered the moniker of “sloppers.” (And no, we’re not talking about a cheeseburger that’s smothered in a red or green chile.)
“A friend of mine has coined the word ‘Sloppers’ for people who are using ChatGPT to do everything for them,” TikTok user intrnetbf said in a recent video, which went viral on the platform. “That’s incredible verbiage. Slopper? That’s incredible verbiage.”
For instance, Foster pointed to one viral video in which a man recounted going on a first date with a woman — but was surprised when she pulled out ChatGPT on her phone and asked it what she should order off the menu. (“There was no second date,” he concluded.)
The term “AI slop” has become synonymous with often garbled low-effort content online, from ChatGPT’s weird way of talking to a barrage of junk littering platforms like Facebook and Pinterest. Turning it into a noun evokes the “glassholes” who were lampooned for walking around with Google’s head-mounted Glass cameras more than a decade ago — and puts the focus on how new technology is changing the way we relate to others, and even now perhaps to ourselves.
We should point out that “slopper” as a term isn’t quite settled; commenters were quick to chime in with alternative ideas.
“Botlicker is my personal favorite,” one user commented.
“Someone said ‘second hand thinker’ and I still think about that daily,” another user added.
While it’s not much more than a bit of lighthearted fun, the coining of the term highlights growing anti-AI resentment, with users pointing out the many drawbacks of overrelying on the tech, from rampant hallucinations greatly undermining the validity of the information we find online, to potentially dangerous rabbit holes that can lead users to “ChatGPT psychosis.”
Users are also growing wary of the tech replacing human workers, artists, and content creators, with tech company CEOs experiencing increasing blowback for boasting about their efforts to automate jobs.
Just last week, subscribers to the iconic fashion and lifestyle magazine Vogue voiced their disgust after spotting a double-page ad for the brand Guess, prominently featuring an entirely AI-generated model.
Now, people are getting fed up with friends and family who are using ChatGPT as a crutch, fielding every query to the chipper-sounding — and frequently wrong — personal concierge.
In his newsletter, Foster wrote about the important distinction between “language” and “thought” now that LLMs have become incredibly good at outputting believable-sounding language. Despite their advertised prowess, though, the tech still falls far short of the kind of reasoning humans are capable of.
The tech represents a major test for our critical thinking skills, allowing bad actors to double down on the proliferation of dangerous disinformation and conspiracy theories.
It’s a test that we’re failing, Foster argued.
“ChatGPT is the ultimate ‘cultural product of the postmodern era,’ and very few of us have been inoculated with a theory of mind that distinguishes language from thought,” Foster concluded in his newsletter. “Every sign points to a full-blown slopper pandemic ahead.”
More on ChatGPT: If You’ve Asked ChatGPT a Legal Question, You May Have Accidentally Doomed Yourself in Court
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