Safeguarding Content Quality Against AI “Slop”

We are privileged these days to be able to roll our eyes still at fakery created by generative AI. Think of the blurred hands and misaligned clothes in the Princess of Wales’ infamous 2024 Mother’s Day family photo. More recent and brazen examples exist in fake citations included in some lawyers’ depositions and even in the first version of the U.S. government’s 2025 MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) report.

But we likely won’t have that easy eye-roll privilege for long.

The recent iterations of generative AI models, such as ChatGPT 4o, Claude 4, and Google’s Gemini, include even more sophisticated reasoning and huge context windows—thousands of times the size of the original ChatGPT release. Generally, the longer the context window, “the better the model is able to perform,” according to quiq.com.

As I mentioned in my most recent blog post (“Leveling an Editorial Eye on AI”), the omnipresence of AI has the capability—and now the model power—to compound inaccurate information (and misinformation) a thousand-fold, collapsing in on itself. This endangers the whole concept of truth in our modern society, warns my colleague Noz Urbina.

Given this capability, what are reasonable steps an individual, an organization, and the content profession as a whole can take to guard against even the subtlest “AI slop”?

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Thistle-Tomes

The following are my 2024 short takes on all things content in life and work:

  1. No one is an expert on AI yet. Take everything with a grain of salt.
  2. Sustainability should be part of every content strategy and content project.
  3. Lack of specificity on websites can be both a friend and an enemy. Vagueness can leave room for negotiation but also misinterpretation.
  4. Jargon in customer-facing content can be a significant barrier to understanding and engagement.
  5. Something I like to call “name theory” says that what you call something matters. And it doesn’t have to rhyme with “oom.”
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Neurodivergence and Content Design: The Migraine Edition

Designing online content sensitive to user differences has been our responsibility for at least 20 years – in the U.S., since the advent of Section 508 requirements. During that time, our awareness of inclusivity has evolved to include (pun intended) neurodiversity, a term coined in the 1990s by Judy Singer.

Nick Walker, Ph.D., defines “neurodivergent” folks as having “a mind that functions in ways which diverge significantly from the dominant societal standards of ‘normal.’” (See her helpful blog post “Neurodiversity: Some Basic Terms & Definitions.”)

The mind functions differently. That definition encompasses folks with dyslexia, autism, dyscalculia, ADHD, anxiety, and a neurological injury. It also includes me, a person with migraine disorder. Or it should.

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Creating Online Content for Your Customers: Scannability

Even as the current crisis recedes, offering quality content still remains a crucial way for businesses to attract and retain customers. According to a 2020 survey by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), 72% of content professionals agree that their organization views content as a core business strategy.

Most of this new content will go online. So how do you do online content well? This blog series can help.

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