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Youve probably encountered images in your social media feeds that look like a cross between photographs and computer-generated graphics. Some are fantasticalthink Shrimp Jesusand some are believable at a quick glanceremember the little girl clutching a puppy in a boat during a flood? These are examples of AI slop, or low- to mid-quality contentvideo, images, audio, text or a mixcreated with AI tools, often with little regard for accuracy. Its fast, easy, and inexpensive to make this content. AI slop producers typically place it on social media to exploit the economics of attention on the internet, displacing higher-quality material that could be more helpful. AI slop has been increasing over the past few years. As the term slop indicates, thats generally not good for people using the internet. AI slops many forms The Guardian published an analysis in July 2025 examining how AI slop is taking over YouTubes fastest-growing channels. The journalists found that 9 out of the top 100 fastest-growing channels feature AI-generated content like zombie football and cat soap operas. The song “Let it Burn,” allegedly recorded by a band called The Velvet Sundown, was AI-generated. Listening to Spotify? Be skeptical of that new band, The Velvet Sundown, that appeared on the streaming service with a creative backstory and derivative tracks. Its AI-generated. In many cases, people submit AI slop thats just good enough to attract and keep users attention, allowing the submitter to profit from platforms that monetize streaming and view-based content. The ease of generating content with AI enables people to submit low-quality articles to publications. Clarkesworld, an online science fiction magazine that accepts user submissions and pays contributors, stopped taking new submissions in 2024 because of the flood of AI-generated writing it was getting. These arent the only places where this happenseven Wikipedia is dealing with AI-generated low-quality content that strains its entire community moderation system. If the organization is not successful in removing it, a key information resource people depend on is at risk. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver delves into AI slop. Harms of AI slop AI-driven slop is making its way upstream into peoples media diets as well. During Hurricane Helene, opponents of President Joe Biden cited AI-generated images of a displaced child clutching a puppy as evidence of the administrations purported mishandling of the disaster response. Even when its apparent that content is AI-generated, it can still be used to spread misinformation by fooling some people who briefly glance at it. AI slop also harms artists by causing job and financial losses and crowding out content made by real creators. The placement of this lower-quality AI-generated content is often not distinguished by the algorithms that drive social media consumption, and it displaces entire classes of creators who previously made their livelihood from online content. Wherever its enabled, you can flag content thats harmful or problematic. On some platforms, you can add community notes to the content to provide context. For harmful content, you can try to report it. Along with forcing us to be on guard for deepfakes and inauthentic social media accounts, AI is now leading to piles of dreck degrading our media environment. At least theres a catchy name for it. Adam Nemeroff is an assistant provost for innovations in learning, teaching, and technology at Quinnipiac University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
A few years ago, we had a bottleneck within our organization at Super.com, the membership program focused on saving, earning, and credit building. Every new idea depended on our engineers, and our internal requests were piling up faster than we could clear them. We were adding new people to our company every week, but our engineering team was underwater. Every new feature, every minor internal tool, every process tweak depended on our developers. We were hiring as fast as we could, but it felt like shoveling sand against the tide. So we tried something different. We started teaching nontechnical employees (designers, product managers, operations leads, corporate support teams) how to build their own tools and automations. At first it felt radical. Then it felt obvious. Fast forward: we grew to over $200M in annual revenue with only about 200 people. We stopped the hiring frenzy, but the business was growing faster than ever. Along the way, we documented everything in an internal playbook for our team. Soon our LinkedIn inboxes and emails were full of messages from other leaders trying to do the same thing. Turns out the problems we had been solving werent unique. Here are the five lessons that have resonated most with other leaders about empowering nontechnical teams to build their own solutions, and why they matter to any leader. 1. Create Spaces Where Technical and NonTechnical Minds Meet Inside our company we set up two AI guilds: one for technical implementation (e.g., building tools) and one focused on adoption and use cases (e.g., using tools). They met monthly, included people from every department, and shared concrete experiments. A product manager might present how she used an AI tool to understand the codebase without tapping on the shoulder of an engineer. An operations lead might show how he used a simple script to automate dispute management. The takeaway: dont keep AI or automation knowledge locked in engineering. Build crossfunctional forums that normalize sharing wins, questions, and learnings. Those conversations surface use cases youd never see from the top down. 2. Invest in Easy-to-Use Tools You cant empower nonengineers if the only tools they have require a CS degree. We invested in lowcode environments like Superblocks, Zapier, Amplitude, and Glean Agents, and we made tools that are typically only used by developers, such as Cursor (AI IDE) and Coder (Remote Environments), accessible. Our developer operations team took on the challenge of making onboarding as simple as possible. They stripped out every unnecessary step and automated the rest, until getting set up took less than 10 minutes. We learned quickly that if a tool required more than 10 minutes of training, adoption would stall. Most non-technical teammates could follow the instructions on their own, but for anyone who preferred extra help, our IT team sat down with them one-on-one. 3. Set Guardrails That Empower We published a clear internal AI policy that spelled out approved use cases (like automation scripts, bugfix prototypes, and research tools), quality standards (human oversight required for anything customerfacing or that becomes part of routine process), and security guidelines (no sensitive data in prompts without review). Engineers didnt police these policiesthey coached. Any piece of code went through review, whether it came from an engineer or not. That consistency was the point: non-technical team members could submit pull requests, and instead of dismissing them, engineers gave feedback the same way they would with peers. Coaching meant guiding contributors through fixes and best practices, not shutting the door. Guardrails, not gatekeepers, is what makes experimentation sustainable. 4. Celebrate Small Wins Publicly When someone outside engineering built something that moved the needle (like an operations process automation or AI triage of customer reported issues), we made sure everyone heard about it. These wins were shared in weekly business reviews and companywide meetings. That visibility did more than motivate others to try; it changed our culture. During objectives and key results planning wed prompt each team to consider, Could AI help me hit my goals faster? Could I build this myself instead of waiting? Sharing wins turns isolated hacks created by individuals into company-wide capabilities. 5. Rethink the Role of Your Engineers When non-engineers have access to the right tools, software engineers become even more valuable. At our company, 93% of developers use AI tools daily. Engineers still own the hard, highimpact work: major features, architecture, deep debugging. But now they spend less time answering basic questions or making tiny fixes for other teams. The result: your best technical talent gets to focus on ambitious projects, while everyone else can handle the smaller, more routine tasks themselves. In a world where AI and lowcode tools are everywhere, the companies that win wont just have great engineers. Theyll have a culture that empowers everyone to build.
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E-Commerce
While executives spend billions on meditation apps, yoga retreats, and wellness programs, American stress levels continue to skyrocket. A recent study of 90 workplace wellness interventions found most (with one exception detailed below*) had no positive effectand sometimes even made things worse. Our research from last year found that the majority of us tend to stress out more trying to get rid of stress. Talk about a negative spiral! We’re trying harder than ever to eliminate stress, yet workplace anxiety has reached crisis levels, just in time for AI disruption to take people over the edge. Here’s the uncomfortable truth: You’ll never eliminate stress from your career (or your life). But as a stress physiologist, Im here to tell you that’s actually a good thing! My research reveals that our obsession with stress reduction is fundamentally flawed. Instead of fighting stress, the most successful professionals learn to harness it. The only people with zero stress are dead people. Our aim should not be death. Here are five evidence-based strategies to rewire how you can work with stressnot against it. 1. Reframe Your Biology as Your Competitive Edge When your heart pounds before a big presentation, your brain screams “danger.” But that physiological responseincreased heart rate, heightened alertness, elevated energyis identical to excitement. The difference lies in interpretation. A Harvard study found that participants who stated “I am excited” before delivering speeches were rated as significantly more persuasive and confident than those who tried to “stay calm.” The nervous energy remained the same, but performance dramatically improved. Stop telling yourself to calm down. Your stress response is a feature, not a flaw. Start declaring: “This energy is preparing me to excel.” Your stress response isn’t sabotaging youit’s upgrading your operating system. 2. Ask “Is This Actually a Tiger?” Your brain evolved to treat missed emails like charging predators. This served our ancestors well but creates havoc in modern workplaces. When stress hits, pause and ask: “Will this kill me in the next three minutes?” If not, you’re experiencing what I call a “paper tiger”a stressor that feels life-threatening but isn’t. Once you recognize the false alarm, you can redirect that energy productively instead of spiralling into fight-or-flight paralysis. 3. Convert Anxiety into AngerStrategically When facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, excitement might feel impossible. That’s where anger becomes your ally. Studies reveal that anger increases effort toward goals and sparks greater creativity than neutral emotional states. The key is directing anger at the problem, not people. Instead of fuming at difficult colleagues, channel that energy toward solving systemic issues. Transform “This situation is impossible” into “This problem needs fixing, and I’m going to figure out how.” Anger mobilizes action. Point it in the right direction. 4. Think Micro-Goals, Not Mega-Outcomes Stress often stems from feeling overwhelmed by massive objectives. Break intimidating projects into actions so small they’re nearly impossible to fail. When you complete micro-goals, your brain releases dopamine, creating an addictive cycle of progress. When we think we have to leap Everest in a single jump, or relearn our entire job because of AI, our brain naturally defaults to helplessness. But by taking action, even incredibly small moves, we begin to regain agency and feel more in control. This actionable hope ultimately moves us beyond our state of learned helplessness. Ask yourself: “What’s the smallest possible step forward?” Then take it. Winning becomes neurologically addictive (even if the perfect outcome isnt guaranteed). 5. Make It Bigger Than You The most transformative reframe involves expanding your perspective beyond personal gain. When you anchor goals in serving something largeryour team, customers, communitythe fear centers in your brain quiet down. Back to those workplace wellness studies. In the 90 workplace stress interventions, the only thing that consistently improved employee well-being was service to others. When stress serves a purpose beyond yourself, it transforms from burden to fuel. Before your next high-stakes meeting, shift from “How do I not mess this up?” to “How can I serve my audience?” The stress remains, but now it’s powering something meaningful and reminding you that stress is often simply a barometer for how much you care. The Paradox of Peak Performance Olympic athletes don’t break world records during practice. They achieve greatness when pressure peaks. Your biggest professional breakthroughs likely occurred during your most stressful periods, not your calmest. This isn’t about glorifying burnout or toxic work cultures. It’s about recognizing that stress, properly channeled, is the raw material of achievement. The goal isn’t eliminationit’s transformation. Your stress isn’t going anywhere. But your relationship with it can change everything. Stop trying to manage it away. Start using it as the high-octane fuel it was designed to be. The question isn’t whether you’ll face stress today; It’s whether you’ll let it defeat you or springboard you forward.
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E-Commerce
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