Two years ago, using AI felt like magic. Today, it feels like I’m a foreman at a digital landfill, sorting through heaps of synthetic garbage just to find one useful sentence.
If you’ve felt the same, you aren't crazy. The "Slop Era" is officially here.
It's not just about writing, it's about connection.
The Great Migration: Why I Left GPT 5.0
For a long time, ChatGPT was my right hand. But when GPT 5.0 rolled out, something broke. The "trash-to-value" ratio flipped. I found myself spending 45 minutes "excavating" a 500-word draft, stripping away the flowery metaphors and the fake enthusiasm.
We’ve switched almost entirely to Gemini. Not because it’s a "perfect" writer, but because the time to edit is significantly lower. In 2026, the best AI isn’t the one that writes the most; it’s the one that requires the least amount of "slop-removal" before it sounds like a human.
Is the AI getting worse, or are we getting better?
I’ve been asking myself: Is the output actually more "sloppy," or have I just become a more discerning pilot?
The answer is both. We’ve developed a "slop-dar." We recognize the "Mid-Curve Prose" instantly. But there’s a technical reason too: Model Collapse. AI was trained on thousands of years of human grit and knowledge. But now, the internet is flooded with AI content.
When AI learns from AI, it’s a snake eating its own tail. It loses the "edge" of humanexperience and becomes a photocopy of a photocopy—blurred, generic, and soulless—because it has forgotten what it's like to be a person.
The "Co-Pilot" Standard
I didn't just "prompt" this newsletter and hit publish. I co-wrote it.
Passengers take the raw output.
Co-Pilots inject the one thing the cycle can't produce: Actual experience.
To help you navigate this, here is my 2026 Slop Trigger List. If you see these, your AI is being lazy:
The Trigger | Why it’s “Slop” |
|---|---|
"It's not just X—it's Y." | The "Fake Pivot." It’s a cheap way for the AI to sound deep without actually providing a new insight. |
The "Em-Dash Overload" | Using dashes—to connect every thought—because the AI can't figure out—how to end a sentence. |
"Delve" / "Unfold" | The AI’s favorite way to sound like a Victorian professor who has never actually done the work. |
"Crucial / Essential / Pivotal" | Adjective-stuffing. If everything is "pivotal," nothing is. |
The "In Conclusion / Overall" | High school essay energy. Real writers transition; AI summarizes. |
GIVEAWAY: Spot the Slop
Overall, I practiced what I preached today. I co-wrote this with an AI, but I purposefully left three "Slop Triggers" from the list above hidden in this email.
Reply with all three hidden triggers, and I will draw a winner for a free sticker pack!
Stay sharp out there. Don't let your co-pilot fly the plane into the ground.