Plain English with Derek Thompson
Plain English with Derek Thompson

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

September 1, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

In 2026, nearly half of all long-form content on LinkedIn and 29% of long-form posts on Twitter are AI-generated, according to data from PanGram, the AI detection app. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that AI has “plunged the book industry into utter chaos,” and the New York Times described “the worst of artificial intelligence slop” cluttering Google searches, Amazon listings, and Facebook feeds. The problem is no longer confined to bad actors pumping out fake reviews or propaganda. It is now ordinary people—busy professionals, aspiring influencers, even journalists—using AI to write emails, LinkedIn posts, and memos because it is cheap, easy, and algorithmically rewarded.

The Problem Is Not Just Bad Actors—It’s Everyone

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:04) **Introduction: The AI Slop Crisis** - Derek Thompson frames the episode by listing why Americans dislike AI, culminating in the core problem: AI is used to create fake, low-quality content that is flooding the internet.
  • 2 (05:25) **Guest Background & Origin Story** - Mark Spiro explains his path from computer science and robotics to Google and self-driving cars, and why ChatGPT's release sparked the idea for PanGram.
  • 3 (07:36) **The Real Risk: Saving the Internet, Not Preventing Apocalypse** - Spiro argues the core mission is to preserve human communication and the internet itself from being overrun by bots.
  • 4 (10:00) **The Scale of the Problem: Shocking Statistics** - Spiro presents data on how much online content is now AI-generated, revealing the problem is far worse than most people realize.
  • 5 (12:30) **Bad Actors vs. Economic Incentives** - Spiro explains that the problem isn't just malicious actors, but a widespread economic incentive for everyone to use AI to produce more content.
  • 6 (14:28) **How PanGram Works: A Classifier Model** - Spiro explains the technical mechanism of PanGram, distinguishing it from generative AI models like ChatGPT.
  • 7 (17:09) **Training Data and the "Topic Drift" Problem** - Spiro details a key challenge: PanGram's human dataset is from before 2022, creating potential issues with modern writing about AI itself.

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Show Notes

So many people seem to hate AI, and it’s not just because it might displace millions of jobs, destroy the world, or deepen distrust in big corporations and government. The reason might actually be simpler than we think: People don't like AI because it is so often used to make things that are fake.

From sham biographies and bogus social media posts to AI-generated journalism, the internet has become inundated with “AI slop.” So how do we begin to clean up the mess? That’s where AI detection company Pangram comes in. Derek talks with Pangram founder and CEO Max Spero about the seduction of AI writing, how his program detects it, and the moral implications of publicly calling out those who use it.

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If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Max Spero

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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