We're in our AI slop era

Today, Explained

Vox

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Meta just dropped Vibes and OpenAI just dropped Sora 2. Both social media platforms are filled with AI videos that warp our sense of reality. This episode was made in collaboration with Vox's Future Perfect. It was produced by Ariana Aspuru, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Adriene Lilly, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today, explained from Vox, Sean Ramoser, I'm also from Vox.
0:03.0	I'm soon to be the father of a daughter, and my dad's pretty excited about that because he always wanted a daughter.
0:08.0	He wanted me to be a girl, and that's all the time we have to talk about that.
0:12.0	But the other day he sent me a video.
0:15.0	A YouTube short of a girl singing, it was titled 12-year-old Sings for Hero Dad, and he said,
0:22.3	Hope My Granddaughter learns this song one day.
0:24.9	But nothing about this video seemed right.
0:27.4	For starters, the girl looks like she's six and not 12.
0:30.3	The description reads the heartwarming song that the father taught his daughter before the accident.
0:34.8	What accident?
0:35.7	The mouth movements don't line up. The shots of the crowd, the lighting, everything is too perfect. And that's why it had to be AI Slop. I wrote back to my dad. This video is unfortunately artificial intelligence and we haven't talked since. Just kidding. But my dad's not the only one getting duped by AI Slop. A lot of you are, and pretty soon the rest of us will join you because we are in our AI Slop era.
1:02.6	You are listening to today.
1:06.6	I'm Hayden Field, senior AI reporter at The Verge.
1:10.1	Slop.
1:10.9	To me, AI Slop, the way I define it is just any form of AI generated content that's designed to keep you scrolling and keep you consuming and coming back for more.
1:24.0	Today's special is fresh out of the bat.
1:25.6	Little beige, little gray.
1:26.6	We call it AI Slop.
1:27.5	Let me get you a scoop.
1:32.3	Which fruit bed would you sleep in?
1:35.6	Blueberry Bed.
1:37.8	These new AI-generated video social media platforms that have an endless scroll or, you know, a AI generated blog
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.