Jason Kelce never said Bad Bunny's critics were “a bad fit for America's future.” George Kittle never ranted about politics and football. But thousands of people believed they did. The fabricated quotes spread across social media, racked up engagement, sparked outrage, and forced both NFL players to publicly deny saying words they never uttered. This is AI slop. It is no longer a theoretical future risk. It is here, operating at scale, reshaping what people believe about athletes, celebrities, politicians, and world events. The term, which Merriam-Webster named its Word of the Year for 2025, describes low-quality AI-generated content produced rapidly and cheaply to mimic real news, real quotes, and real incidents. The content looks professional. It feels authentic. And it spreads faster than corrections can catch up. Word of the Year for 2025 Word of the Year for 2025 A study by AI risk management platform Alethea recently warned that sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, and Formula 1, are being actively targeted by AI-generated misinformation networks. These operations manufacture fake game updates, nonexistent celebrity feuds, fabricated scandals, and politicized quotes attributed to star players. The goal is engagement, which translates into advertising revenue and, in some cases, manipulation of betting markets. study study The Business Model Behind the Lies The economics of AI slop are disturbingly simple. According to research, AI-generated “slop” and “brainrot” videos may account for 20% of content appearing in YouTube feeds for new users. A single AI slop channel from India has accumulated over 2.07 billion views and generates an estimated $4.25 million in annual revenue. research research accumulated accumulated The creators behind this content are often entrepreneurs in countries with widespread internet connectivity and strong English proficiency. They feed prompts into generative AI tools that produce images, videos, and text for mere cents per piece. Platforms algorithmically reward high engagement, and few things generate engagement like outrage, sympathy, and fear. A fake quote from an athlete about a political controversy performs better than accurate reporting. A fabricated scandal spreads further than a factual story about practice schedules. Lisa Kaplan, founder and CEO of Alethea, told Reuters that the evolution of these tools has made fake news far more daunting than in earlier eras of misinformation. Content now looks real and is produced at a volume that makes it nearly impossible for the average person to determine authenticity. Before, fake news relied on human labor to copy and paste content across platforms. Today, AI can impersonate brands, generate engaging images, and mimic genuine announcements without human intervention. Reuters Reuters The Damage Extends Beyond Annoyance The consequences of AI slop extend beyond cluttered feeds and confused fans. Franchises fall prey to manipulated narratives; these narratives damage reputations, undermine trust, and politicize spaces that previously served as cultural common ground. Sports have long functioned as one of the few remaining touchpoints that unite people across political divides. That makes them attractive targets for influence operations. The financial damage is also substantial. These networks divert advertising revenue from legitimate sports media. They also distort the audience data that media companies use for their planning. Some outbound links from these AI-slop accounts have been flagged for phishing and malicious redirects, posing a real fraud risk to fans who click. The financial damage is also substantial. A good example comes from recent reporting on OpenAI’s video generator Sora. Forbes found that OpenAI is burning an estimated $15 million a day to keep Sora running. That adds up to roughly five billion dollars a year in compute and infrastructure costs tied to mass-produced AI content. Forbes described it as spending more than a quarter of the company’s revenue to power what critics now call an AI slop factory. found found It shows how distorted the economics have become. Media platforms are losing traffic, while companies building the tools pay giant operating bills to churn out low-value clips at a scale that overwhelms real content. What Comes Next The obvious response is to demand that platforms take responsibility. Some efforts are underway. YouTube has begun blocking revenue sharing for channels posting repetitive, “inauthentic” content. The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity is working on standards to add metadata to professionally produced content. However, progress has been painfully slow, and the economic incentives continue to favor slop production. working working Censorship presents its own dangers. Heavy-handed content moderation often catches legitimate speech in its nets. Free expression advocates worry about giving corporations or governments expanded powers to decide what counts as acceptable information. Yet, allowing synthetic lies to circulate unchecked until they overwhelm authentic content represents a different kind of threat to public discourse. The Alethea study concluded with practical advice: verify breaking news through official team channels, avoid clicking links in suspicious comment sections, and remember that outrage is often the intended product of what you are seeing. However, individual vigilance can only accomplish so much as fabricated content accelerates, and the tools for creating it become cheaper by the month. study study What is clear is that the conversation needs to shift. AI slop is not a future problem requiring foresight and preparation. It is a present crisis requiring immediate attention. The excitement surrounding generative AI’s creative potential is understandable, but that enthusiasm must be matched by a serious defense of truth. Without shared agreement on what actually happened, who actually said what, and which events are real, the foundations of informed public life begin to crumble. We are watching that erosion happen in real time. The question now is whether we can respond fast enough to matter.

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

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The Credibility Collapse: How AI ‘Slop’ Is Poisoning What We Believe

The Credibility Collapse: How AI ‘Slop’ Is Poisoning What We Believe

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