I’ve seen several videos on YouTube complaining about how AI
slop is ruining videos in their field of interest. This seems to be a
particular problem with history videos. Fake info didn’t start with the internet,
but it has become more widely visible since it is easier to produce. I haven’t
been a paragon of virtue in this regard myself, but I am trying to improve.
What is AI Slop?
I see AI Slop as not so much a problem with AI (Artificial
Intelligence) technology, as the misuse of those tools by people who either don’t
care about the quality of their work, or who lack the knowledge to recognize
problems with their work.
There is a
distinction between slop and deception. Slop is created when people don’t care.
Deception is a deliberate effort to mislead.
The Cause of AI Slop
I have used AI
tools in my own work and found them useful. Most of my experience has been with
text to voice systems. This has given me some understanding of the short
comings and problems with current AI technology.
I have used text to
voice systems extensively. There are some patterns I have noticed. One is
getting odd gaps in the dialogue. I usually edit these gaps out later or play
around with punctuation to fix the problem.
These systems will
often mispronounce uncommon words. In my own work I fix these problems by
altering the spellings of these words to force the pronunciation to fit.
Another common give away of AI is with words like “lead,” which pronounced
differently depending on the meaning in context. Some newer systems are better
at it.
When I catch these
kinds of issues, it tells me that the “creator” hasn’t bothered to listen to
the recording or fix it if they did.
In my own work I’ve
sometimes put in gaps, mispronunciations, and “ums” to give the voice more
character.
Some creators use
AI to create their written material and scripts. AI writing is often
repetitious, contain contradictory information, or contain incorrect
information. Again, this is not purely an AI problem.
In my experience I have never had AI generated writing that I didn’t need to
rewrite.
My Hands Are Not Completely Clean
My hands are not
completely clean, since I have done some
videos and posts, in jest, which some people might see as slop. I now try to
avoid creating and accepting fake information.
My film “Who Shot the President,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lSTEhH0d4E
is a fake documentary. Some viewers still took it as a serious proposal. Some
even sent threats because of the strong feelings about their own pet theories.
I worked on another project I called “The First Person in Space.” In it a
character claims that in 1943, Werner Von Braun used a V-2 to launch a female
test pilot into a mission like Shepard’s 1961 Mercury test flight. After my
experience with “Who shot the President,” I worried that the idea was too
plausible, and some people might think it was real. So I never posted it.
I have also made the mistake of not reviewing my videos
thoroughly before I post them. Most recently, I posted a sped-up version of
“The Barrier” with out rewatching it. It was only after someone pointed it out
that I realised the technique I used adjusted the video and audio by different
amounts. I was able to fix the problem, but it still shows how important it is
to review your own work closely.
Spotting AI Slop
I have developed my own ways of spotting AI slop, and there are
many sources online that have advice on how to do that. However, all these
techniques take some effort. How many people will spend two hours checking if
they can trust a five-minute video they just watched?
Why is AI Writing Repetitious?
After I wrote a draft of this post, I chatted with a friend. He
also noticed that AI generated writing tends to repeat itself. That got me to
wonder why.
I recalled seeing an interview with Marshall McLuhan where he
said that he would only read every other page of an academic or technical
paper. He said this was possible because if it were well written, then there
would be enough redundancy in the writing that he could follow what the paper
was saying. He contrasted that with fiction and other writing meant for
entertainment, which wouldn’t have that redundancy.
In my own experience with technical writing, most of the writing
is not intended to read. That is the material is meant as background and the writer
would expect that the reader would only skim the report to confirm that the
work had been done or consulted when reproducing the work. I found switching from
that mindset to writing for entertainment a challenge.
I suspect that most of the writing used to train AI falls into
the technical/academic style. That could be one reason why AI writing would be
more redundant.
Again, it does mean that creators who don’t bother to review
what AI gives them is the source of AI slop.
This post is a mirror from my main blog
http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
