Why Caring about Every Written Word Matters, Especially in Law

When it comes to digital content, we are now fully immersed in an Internet of AI-created articles, images, and videos. In fact, in just a few years, AI content has become so pervasive that we have begun labeling much of it “AI slop.” This term of endearment is as much a warning as it is a description. There is a lot of low-effort content flooding our digital world right now, and it can be safely assumed that it is working its way into our professional lives as well.

Defining AI Slop

The picture in this post is a good example of AI slop. It took about 15 seconds to prompt ChatGPT to generate it and was added to this article with only one small tweak. Generally, AI slop refers to digital content produced by artificial intelligence that lacks effort, depth, or meaningful human oversight. It is the type of content that prioritizes speed and quantity rather than substance and quality. The most important factor is the absence of careful human curation; when AI outputs are published with little to no review, the result is material that may technically be “content” but lacks any real value. You could essentially recreate such content in seconds just by mindlessly prompting your favorite AI like ChatGPT or Grok.

AI Slop is Algorithm Poison

Our algorithms, which have been curated and tweaked for years to deliver what should be most interesting to us, are in shambles. They just don’t deal well with the scale of content creation that is now achievable with AI. A couple of years ago, when AI could only create text, we at Puritas Springs were first exposed to “AI slop” on Amazon’s digital book service.

So many digital books were being uploaded to the service that Amazon put a limit of 100 titles per day. You read that right, you could not upload more than 100 digital books per day. Considering the absurdity of that limit, you can only imagine the number of titles actually being uploaded.

The thinking of these unscrupulous “authors” is that it’s free to create and upload a boatload of garbage. And, if enough sold for .99 cents, you could scale that to make a chunk of money. This type of manipulation is evident on all platforms, impacting most forms of content.

Unfortunately, even YouTube now unknowingly recommends videos created by accounts that upload hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of content each day. When you stumble across such content, you might get sucked in at first and think it is an interesting documentary, until it starts to feel oddly generic, as if assembled by someone with no real interest in the subject. In the end, maybe that is what differentiates the content we create compared to what an AI bot can spit out—we actually care about what we are saying and sharing.

Avoiding “Legal Slop”

Law office must not overreact by avoiding AI. In many cases, AI can save loads of time. Many lawyers use templates when starting a legal document, and having AI create one for you is no different than pulling one up from a Templates folder on your computer.

Similarly, a competent lawyer would never bring up a template, put their name on it, and file it in court. The same holds true for AI content; it is a starting point (and perhaps an assistant), but every word must be acknowledged and fine-tuned by the lawyer before it is released to the world. 

AI-Assisted vs. AI Slop

The distinction is clear, but let’s redefine it:

• AI-assisted content is meant to be carefully edited, reviewed, and curated by humans. It means using AI a tool, not a replacement.

• AI slop is generated and published with minimal oversight; it is superficial, potentially misleading, or erroneous content.

This article is AI-assisted, but we can assure you that every word has been carefully edited and is delivered with a specific intent. Legal content is no different. Every word must be scrutinized; every reference must be checked. The consequences of errors are far greater than publishing a half-rate blog post. Reputations are at stake with legal documents. There is no room for AI slop in fields where accuracy and trust are paramount.