thought-provoking. I've been thinking about this same topic in the context of corporate mission statements. You know, things like:
“We are committed to leveraging innovative solutions and best-in-class practices to drive meaningful impact, foster collaboration, and create value for all stakeholders.”
That was pre-AI slop in that it was grammatically correct, professional sounding, and emptier than my wallet after taking my kids to Legoland. No person talked that way and no one reading it learned anything. You could swap in any company name and nothing would change.
Organizations were already producing that kind of vague, bloodless writing in annual reports, strategic plans, executive emails, etc. AI just industrialized and mass-produced it.
And it came from that same idea you've identified: the thought that “we need to have something there” instead of asking, “Why do we need to have something there?”
What’s even wilder to me is how many of us know this. We’re fully aware of how soulsucking it is to produce work filled with this kind of performative language, and yet nothing changes. Who are we trying so hard to sound polished or “impressive” for? What are we actually hoping to achieve? On social media especially, whenever I see content that reads like it was written for a corporate brochure, I feel for the social media manager. You can usually tell the messaging came from the top down, and they were left trying to make it work on a platform where nobody talks like that.
I hope as more of us continue having these types of conversation publicly, it becomes a motivator for change.
Loved reading this!
Thanks so much, Aarushi! Appreciate you <3
thought-provoking. I've been thinking about this same topic in the context of corporate mission statements. You know, things like:
“We are committed to leveraging innovative solutions and best-in-class practices to drive meaningful impact, foster collaboration, and create value for all stakeholders.”
That was pre-AI slop in that it was grammatically correct, professional sounding, and emptier than my wallet after taking my kids to Legoland. No person talked that way and no one reading it learned anything. You could swap in any company name and nothing would change.
Organizations were already producing that kind of vague, bloodless writing in annual reports, strategic plans, executive emails, etc. AI just industrialized and mass-produced it.
And it came from that same idea you've identified: the thought that “we need to have something there” instead of asking, “Why do we need to have something there?”
What’s even wilder to me is how many of us know this. We’re fully aware of how soulsucking it is to produce work filled with this kind of performative language, and yet nothing changes. Who are we trying so hard to sound polished or “impressive” for? What are we actually hoping to achieve? On social media especially, whenever I see content that reads like it was written for a corporate brochure, I feel for the social media manager. You can usually tell the messaging came from the top down, and they were left trying to make it work on a platform where nobody talks like that.
I hope as more of us continue having these types of conversation publicly, it becomes a motivator for change.
100% human written on a post about ai slop is 👩🍳🤌🏻
I meant it when I say, "opinions are MINE"