10 Reasons to be Thankful for Slop

The hidden upside of the slop apocalypse

“Brain Spin” artwork by Ade, March 2026

I think you need some optimism today so I want to share why slop is the best thing that’s happened to artists for as long as I can remember. If I do this right, I can send you into the weekend feeling hopeful about being an artist in the age of generative “art.” Here are 10 reasons to be thankful for the slop…

1. We have a new word

Having a new word to describe bad art is more important than it may seem. More than an insult, “slop” is a new way of framing conversations about quality. It’s a stake in the ground that avoids the wishy washy language that formerly gave low-quality art a pass because we were afraid to hurt people’s feelings. Patience for relativism has run out. Art is art. Slop is slop.

2. Revaluation of ALL art

All the signals of what makes art “good” are being recalibrated. Sounds scary, but haven’t we been asking for this shakeup? Yesterday, modern art induced eye rolls from normies. Shock value doesn’t work like it used to. Art has been on the verge of irrelevance. Thanks to slop, there is a return to valuing the skilled creators with interesting ideas who have genuinely mastered a craft. We needed this.

3. Reverse outrage benefits artists

There is real backlash to AI generated art. People are furious and vocal. The anger has a reverse benefit because when human-made art is produced people notice it, acknowledge it, and praise it more than they would have pre-AI.

4. Sensitivity to fakery has never been higher

Advances in CGI desensitized us to the point that we can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake. Until recently, if something was beautiful we assumed it was Photoshopped and move on. But now our fakery detection systems are on high alert. If it smells too perfect we are skeptical. And now when something is “obviously human” we applaud more readily.

5. Death of perfection

Finding flaws used to be how people ranked art. If you saw a “mistake” you could assume the work was done by an amateur. Now that’s flipped. Perfection is less important than the clues that identify the work as created by a real person. And the pressure to be a brand instead of a human? The requirement to make work that is realer than real? Disappearing.

6. Job loss of the “slop-adjacent”

I hesitate to take any pleasure in someone losing their job, but creators in “slop-adjacent” areas are obsolete now that AI can do it. The fakers are being weeded out of the ranks. Generic stock photography, PowerPoint sludge, marketing spam… the bottom tier of commercial artists will either need to upgrade their skills to transcend the slop or find jobs in another field. Taking shortcuts doesn’t pay what it used to and there has never been a bigger gap between the artists doing the work and the imitators.

7. Less chasing expensive tools

Artists love new gear as much as the next chump. Cameras, computers, monitors, peripheral tech… the justification for the constant upgrades has been that better gear gets us closer to perfection. But when perfection is replaced by authenticity as the ideal, the pressure towards more megapixels and megabytes is less urgent. We still love our gear but perhaps our tool lust can be directed to more interesting less computer-dependent toys.

8. Less software required

Photoshop, Pro Tools, After Effects, countless plugins… whatever software you make art with has seemed necessary. You pay a subscription, upgrade to every new version, and shackle yourself to your computer. But today people want to know that you are real and the less “professionally produced” your work is, the more they relate to you. That doesn’t mean it has to be low quality, but you don’t have to hire a film crew, video editors, and audio engineers to build an audience. We can’t step away from our computers completely, but access to professional software is less mandatory than ever.

9. Stronger communities

It might be my imagination but it feels like we are more connected to the artists we love than ever before. They see our comments, interact with us, and we feel like we are a part of movements that matter. That is not a result of generative AI, it is a result of humans doing what we do best: connecting around the creation of original art. Hopefully this only increases as humans shun the slop.

10. Uncopyable still wins

My advice, and I don’t hear enough people recommending this, is to be skeptical of the doom predictions about what AI will do to artists. It might actually be a golden age for creators who don’t depend on AI. Double-down on the things that make you uncopyable, the messy, flawed, idiosyncratic parts of life that prove you’re human. That will never go out of fashion.

Thanks for considering my top 10 list. Am I crazy? What did I miss? As always it is an honor to exist in your inbox and feeds. Thank you for your support, subscriptions, restacks, and likes. Stay creative.

Your friend,
Ade