AI slop is suffocating the web, says a new study

[rcjordan]

Just in case we haven't covered this enough.....

"new study published in Cornell University's preprint server arXiv.

An analysis of more than 300 million documents, including consumer complaints, corporate press releases, job postings, and messages for the media published by the United Nations suggests that the web is being swamped with AI-generated slop.

The study tracks the purported involvement of generative AI tools to create content across those key sectors, above, between January 2022 and September 2024."


https://www.fastcompany.com/91293162/ai-slop-is-suffocating-the-web

[ergophobe]

complainants in Arkansas, Missouri, and North Dakota were the most likely to use AI, with its presence in around one in four complaints; while West Virginia, Idaho, and Vermont residents were least likely—where between one in 20 and one in 40 showed AI evidence.

That doesn't seem likely. What would explain such a huge difference from state to state?

[rcjordan]

>huge difference from state to state

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a different study with similar (IIRC) AI use differences by demographic.  (I'll let Debbie background process it. She's pretty good at sending me back to an article I've scanned.)

[rcjordan]

This was the one;

Researchers surprised to find less-educated areas adopting AI writing tools faster - Ars Technica

https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/03/researchers-surprised-to-find-less-educated-areas-adopting-ai-writing-tools-faster/

[ergophobe]

That explanation did occur to me, but I would not have expected the states mentioned to be on opposite ends of the education spectrum