The Myth of AI Slop: Why the Internet Is Yelling at Ghosts

By Frank M. Anderson

I don’t know when exactly “AI slop” became a slur, but it’s out there. Somewhere between a Reddit review and a Kindle comment, the phrase crystallized: AI + book = trash. That equation is broadcast like a fact — unexamined, unproven, dismissed.

Here’s the truth: what people call “AI-slop” is almost always a ghost — a fear, a stereotype, a projection. There’s almost no evidence it exists as a successful wave of novels. And more importantly — there are writers out there (some visible, some anonymous) using AI seriously and openly.

Because writing with AI doesn’t always produce trash. Sometimes it forces you to reach deeper, argue harder, refine longer — and sometimes that collision creates something real.

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✅ Yes — Some Authors Are Out in the Open About AI

• Japanese novelist Rie Qudan recently drew global attention after admitting she used ChatGPT to generate part of her prize-winning novel. That’s a rare — but real — example of a legit author acknowledging AI contribution. The Guardian+1
• There are entire communities — like the subreddit r/WritingWithAI — filled with individuals who treat AI as a “writing buddy,” not a cheat code or replacement. People post outlines, rough drafts, AI-generated passages, and ask for human feedback. Reddit+1
• Surveys suggest a growing number of authors are incorporating generative-AI tools in some part of their process — whether for brainstorming, editing, plotting, or drafting. One recent study claims roughly 45% of authors have used generative AI in their process. Author Media

Yes — it’s messy. Yes — some of the output is awful. But that doesn’t make the entire method illegitimate. What it does mean is: there are people choosing to be open, transparent, and experimental with AI.

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🧪 “AI Slop” Is a Meme, Not a Movement

When you dig into the so-called “AI slop problem,” you find something interesting: there’s almost no data supporting the idea that large swaths of truly bad, unedited AI novels are flooding the market — successfully.

There are spam books, content-farm publishers, and questionable self-pub releases. Some use AI tools; some don’t. But the volume of “successful, published, unedited AI novels” is negligible. They rarely get reads, reviews, or traction.

Meanwhile, accusations fly fast:

• If a novel has odd structure or flat prose, people suspect AI.
• If an indie author releases frequently, they’re accused of loophole-exploiting.
• If a book becomes popular, whispers start: “Must be AI.”

But suspicion is not evidence. As far as I can tell — and as of mid-2025 — there has been no legitimate study or credible dataset showing “AI-only books are dominating self-publishing.”

Instead, what you get is the same fear-driven rhetoric that has haunted every new creative medium (early self-publishing, fan fiction, mixtapes, indie music, YouTube).

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💡 What “AI-Assisted Writing” Actually Looks Like

For many writers who do admit using AI, the dynamic runs something like this:

• Use AI to brainstorm ideas, scenes, characters, or conflicts
• Then treat the output as clay — mold it, reshape it, sculpt it
• Rewrite dialogue, restructure pacing, re-infuse emotional depth
• Add your personal history, sparks of voice, thematic consistency
• Iterate, revise, polish, humanize

Think of AI not as a co-author, but as a crucible: a place where heat, pressure, and weird angles extract something you might not reach alone.

If that sounds like “writing,” that’s because it is.

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🎯 Why I Bought the Domain AI-Slop.us — And Why I’m Proud of It

Because if the critics want a label, fine. I’ll take it.
Because I’d rather let people watch the gears spin than pretend no one’s watching.
Because I believe art is a process — messy, noisy, strange — not a pre-packaged commodity.

So I’m doing what few others are doing: releasing work while it’s still live. Not finished, not sealed, but breathing.

If you want to see the plot shift.
If you want to watch a novel being built.
If you can handle contradictions and rewrites and weird edits.

It’s all there.

You don’t have to like it.
You don’t have to read it.

Just don’t call it “AI slop” unless you’ve witnessed the creation yourself.

Because meaningful stories — born of pain, memory, grief, love, fear, hope — don’t always come from clean pens or quiet rooms.
Sometimes they come from chaos.
Sometimes they come from friction.
Sometimes they come from the collision between a human and a ghost in the machine.

And sometimes they land.

— Frank M. Anderson