The entertainment industry has a slop problem AI is not responsible for

It’s fair to say that, in the vast majority of cases, blame is not something any individual, company or industry is comfortable taking. People are just brought up that way, sadly, and companies, organizations, industries in their entirety are made of people after all. But sometimes it’s best to point out the obvious instead of looking at scapegoats… which is what crossed your truly’s mind when reading about the Macquarie Dictionary’s decision to name “AI slop” its “word of the year 2025”.

Now, far be it from me to defend anything having to do with AI – not just as a tech journalist or a content creator, but even as just someone interested in politics, the economy and societies at large. There’s not a single thing these advances in consumer-facing AI have brought to the table, at least so far, that is actually or even potentially positive for everyone (which is what all tech should ultimately be about). So, in that context, “AI slop” is as accurate and meaningful a term as it is poignant.

Having said that, watching people in the entertainment industry often use the same term to describe artificial intelligence as a looming danger supposedly threatening its very existence is… well, nothing if not ironic. Not because there is not cause for concern in AI being involved in the creative process of movies and TV shows – directly affecting the people behind it – as there clearly is. No. It’s because Hollywood, streaming services and cable networks are already serving us way too much traditionally-made slop that has nothing to do with AI – so their executives acting like they are worried about the quality of future entertainment content feels insulting.

Case in point? The whole of 2025, really. Yours truly watches TV shows and movies for about three hours every day and twice that on weekends – not an easy thing to do when juggling two jobs plus two young children’s activities and studies six days a week – in an attempt to just keep up with important and noteworthy new releases, to be honest. Other people watch way more movies and series in a year, so one would think that yours truly should easily recall the relatively small number of such productions he liked the most. Certainly enough to compile a couple of 2025 Top Ten charts, right?

Well… no. Out of the top of his head, yours truly only managed to gather five of each. It was Pluribus, Your Friends and Neighbors, Adolescence, The Beast in Me and Paradise. It was Weapons, One Battle After Another, Souleymane’s Story, No Other Choice and KPop Demon Hunters. But… that was all. He indignantly had to check other people’s lists to remember what else he’s watched over the past 12 months and, sure enough, there were others – “oh, right, that” and “yeah, sure, that too” – capable of filling the remaining slots. But the point was clear: 2025 was, for yours truly at least, a year of mostly forgettable, mediocre or downright bad films and shows.

For a person constantly trying not to watch garbage – there’s simply no time for it – that’s gravely disappointing. Sure, a few TV shows were not a waste of time, such as Task, The Pitt or Ballard. But there were so, so many more that did not live up to the hype, such as The Studio or Dept Q or Prime Target or The Paper or Black Rabbit or The Girlfriend or The Institute or Mobland or The Better Sister or Sirens or Untamed… the list goes on. The same goes for the latest seasons of shows that used to be good, such as The Bear or Squid Game or The Witcher or Stranger Things or The Last of Us. Οther shows’ excellent new seasons almost made up for that – hello, Andor and Poker Face and Reacher – but… not quite.

Things seemed even worse on the movie front. So many disappointments this year, from everything Marvel and everything Disney to everything Netflix (KPop Demon Hunters is a Sony Animation film) and even everything A24 (with the possible exception of Sorry Baby). So many overhyped films simply did not deliver, that there’s no point in even naming names. Yes, it really was that bad. There were a few pleasant surprises – such as Sinners, Bugonia, The Phoenician Scheme, maybe F1 – and a small number of rough gems in the form of indie or international films tried something different with varying degrees of success, but that was about it really.

Which brings us back to that “AI slop” term and how it relates to the entertainment industry’s output as a whole. The films and TV shows mentioned earlier are just the tip of the iceberg and, in fact, the creme de la creme of what production studios of all kinds and sizes had to offer this year. The number of movies and series not worth anyone’s time was much, much higher and their respective quality was much, much lower in the vast majority of cases. Yet here we are, in late 2025, still pretending that it’s OK for this particular industry’s output to comprise of 70% trash, 20% watchable and 10% artistic content worthy of the name.

Are concerns about letting AI become an indispensable part of entertainment content production baseless? No. But a term like “AI slop” sounds like a a bad joke in the context of the traditionally-produced slop being released every year. If Hollywood, streaming services and TV networks really care about content quality and artistic value, they can try doing a better job at delivering that first – regardless of what artificial intelligence tools are made and used – before looking for a scapegoat.

Unless, of course, the entertainment industry is only concerned about protecting its own interests against the AI onslaught and not much else – in which case… welcome to the club, lads. Most of us have the same concerns but also try not to fill the world with garbage content, you know?