AI slop, intentionality, and art

Where a new
definition
of AI slop
connects
with what I
admire in
art

Where a new definition of AI slop connects with what I admire in art

I just read this great article about AI, intentionality and AI Slop by Caleb Gross: You can just say it. He argues that something is slop whenever it is not clear what the intention is behind a particular artifact. I recommend you read it and come back: this post builds on those ideas.

Caleb cites a brilliant sentence from a friend:

"If you’re going to use an LLM to write me an email, I'd much rather you just send me the prompt; at least then I'd have an idea of what you actually meant to say."

This is a bit provocative, but hits precisely one of my principles: whenever I have to express an idea in some prose, I try to make it as clear, simple, and short as possible. Fine form should be used sparingly: unnecessary form hides the idea. ¹

It's like making a minimal yet functional form in industrial design; or crafting the perfect code abstractions in your pet project; or the artist painting the perfect image representing the idea itself... why shouldn't a piece of non-fictional prose aspire to the same principle? Why can't I try to do the same when writing an email to a colleague? Why should we stuff our text with so much noise?

When reading literature, I think the slop argument holds the same. In fiction, the author often doesn't want to convey an 'intellectual idea' the way an essay does; but, paradoxically, convey those ideas that cannot be expressed with words alone, ideas that cannot be reduced to a thesis. How to do that? with feelings, images, contradictions, moods, situations that evoke past memories.

What makes a good novel -- or good videogame, or movie...? One of the things I look for is when everything goes in the direction of expressing THAT idea. In a novel: the situations, the characters, the style of writing. In a videogame the interaction mechanics themselves. In a movie: are composition, colors and camera movement trying to convey all the same thing? In other words, when everything works together towards the idea, and we feel the necessity for that to hold true. Nothing could be different.

So, slop: we might think of slop in fictional work when different parts of the work tell something different. You can feel it when this is the case with big movies, some AAA videogames, less so with small indie works that may sometimes be boring, but are usually more cohesive.

I'll end up my scrambled thoughts like this: I'm not afraid of who uses AI to build critical things that should work well; to make beautiful things; to make art. I will keep looking for signs of intentionality.