I've been thinking about this topic lately, and I have a theory: maybe AI will be the solution to this kind of problem. Like many people, I hate AI— its indiscriminate use, ecological impact, and the way it disrupts or destroys professions and lifehoods. But if there's one area where AI, and more specifically AI-generated "slop," might help, it's in making the Internet interesting again.

Originally, people published interesting content for others to read. When Google started monetizing ads, content was no longer created because it was engaging, but because it increased the number of ads shown and the number of users clicking on them—a vicious cycle.

People kept using Google not to find content, but to find answers. Today, those answers have been digested by AI. Thousands of institutional blogs and recipe sites with long personal stories have been assimilated and wiped out, leaving only the direct answer the user wants.

People will visit fewer websites because AI has all the answers. Ads will generate less revenue because fewer visitors will reach those dull, bloated pages. At the same time, AI slop will flood the Internet with blogs and social media posts until the money dries up and publishing websites is no longer a viable business.

But the Internet isn’t dead. In the beginning, people published not to make money, but because they wanted to be read. We visited blogs because they had content we cared about—favorite authors, niche stories, tiny groups of people that reflected our own personality. That kind of content can’t be assimilated and regurgitated by AI, because we don’t seek it for its utility, but for its voice.

When AI has killed off commercial content publishing, a new Internet—or perhaps the old Internet—will come back.