AI Slop Is Breaking the Internet. Can We Save It?

**Derek Thompson** (0:05)
This episode is brought to you by SnapDragon. Take the leash off your laptop with the processor that gives you long battery life. Work on the go, jump between back to back calls, stay locked in from brewing morning coffee to burning the midnight oil, get maximum performance even when unplugged. Finally, the freedom to move across the room or across the world is here. SnapDragon, that's how. Go to snapdragon.com/laptops.
SnapDragon branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies Incorporated and or its subsidiaries.
This episode is brought to you by Lincoln. What if your vehicle could help give you a reset? Lincoln Rejuvenate is designed to do just that. This multi-sensory feature combines expansive visuals, digital sense and a seat massage for the driver and is available in the 2027 Navigator SUV. Visit linkin.com to learn more. Lincoln Rejuvenate does not operate unless the vehicle is in park when the vehicle is off or if any door is open. Do not use the feature in a closed garage or in other enclosed areas. See owner's manual for important operating instructions.
I've been doing shows recently about why so many Americans say they hate AI. I think it's not just that AI chief executives have promised that the technology will displace tens of millions of jobs. It's not just that AI optimists variably claim that it will destroy the world and or cure cancer, like some kind of cosmic coin being flipped to determine the future of existence. It's not just that it's physical manifestation, the data center is a big ugly box. It's not just that a lot of Americans don't trust big corporations or government, and therefore certainly don't trust big corporations working hand and glove with government to build this thing. It's not just that they think AI videos are corny or annoying or tawdry, or artless or all for at once. The reason I think that a lot of people just don't like AI is so obvious that it is literally the first word, the A for artificial. People don't like AI because it is so often used to make things that are fake. Fake inspirational monologues on LinkedIn, fake posts on Twitter, fake photos on Instagram, fake videos on TikTok. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that AI has, quote, plunged the book industry into utter chaos. Continuing, the spectacular implosions of big deals over suspected AI use are forcing a reckoning over creativity, trust and the future of the industry, end quote. And here is the New York Times just today, quote, the worst of artificial intelligence, Slop has cluttered Google searches with recipes for glue topped pizza, Amazon listings with sham biographies, and Facebook feeds with images of shrimp Jesus. Silicon Valley wants to take out the trash. LinkedIn said in July that AI Slop is a top priority for all of us and developed a button for users to report it. Researchers from YouTube's parent company, Google, described how a video service wiped 130 channels of low quality content off its platform over six months.
For many people on the Internet, the best medicine for AI Slop is Pangram. Pangram is an AI detection app. Here's how it works. You read some piece of writing that seems to you like AI Slop. Maybe it's an email you got or a grant that you're reviewing or a memo that you read, a post that you saw. You copy the text, you go to Pangram, you paste it inside a text box, you press a button and voila. It tells you what percent of that writing is AI, from 100 percent human to 100 percent artificial. In my corner of the world, which is to say journalism and academia and writing in general, Pangram has become nothing less than a cultural force, a meme even. I've seen prominent politicians, chief executives and public intellectuals exposed as AI slop slingers. As the author Tim Reckwarth recently reported, the publisher Hachette recently pulled a horror novel after detectors flagged it as substantially AI generated. The New York Times fired a book critic who seemed to be using AI, and the Atlantic reported that a modern love column in the Times seemed to be half AI generated.
Today's guest is Pangram founder and chief executive, Mark Spero. We talk about the seduction of AI writing, and the effort to clean up the Internet from its mountains and mountains of AI slop.
I'm Derek Thompson.
Max Spero, thank you for joining us.

**Max Spero** (5:15)
Hey, thanks for having me.

**Derek Thompson** (5:16)
So, tell me a little bit about your background. What were you studying in college? What did you do right after college? And how did you come up with the idea for Pangram?