The Rise of 'AI Slop' is Driving Users Back to the Small Web

The mainstream internet is becoming unusable as generative AI floods the digital landscape with low-quality content. This shift is pushing power users away from algorithmic feeds and toward highly curated, manual discovery methods.

In a recent essay titled "The Post-AI Internet Doesn't Look Great," published September 2, 2026, Jordan Goodman argues that the proliferation of generative AI has degraded the utility of the web. Goodman identifies two primary drivers of this decline: the integration of AI-generated responses directly into search engine results and the surge of bot-generated "slop" across social media platforms. He contends that because the barrier to generating content is now trending toward zero, the resulting volume of noise is effectively drowning out meaningful signal.

The Erosion of Search and Social

This trend reflects a broader frustration with the current state of information retrieval. For years, search engines and social algorithms were designed to surface the most relevant content, but the ease of AI production allows low-effort, high-volume content to game these systems. When AI-generated summaries and bot-driven posts dominate the first page of results or the top of a feed, the cost of finding authentic human insight increases significantly.

A Return to the Small Web

As a result of this degradation, Goodman has fundamentally altered his digital habits to escape the noise. He has shifted his consumption toward "small web" patterns, prioritizing tools that offer direct control over the information stream. This includes a reliance on RSS feeds, Substack newsletters, curated YouTube channels, and his own personal website.

This movement highlights a paradox in the AI era: while AI has democratized the ability to create content, it has simultaneously diminished the value of the platforms where that content is hosted. By returning to subscription-based and curated models, users are attempting to rebuild the trust and signal-to-noise ratio that existed before the era of automated content generation.

The Future of Discovery

What remains to be seen is whether this retreat to curated silos will become the standard for the general population or remain a niche behavior for tech-savvy power users. As AI tools continue to evolve and the volume of synthetic content grows, the tension between algorithmic discovery and manual curation is likely to intensify, potentially redefining how the internet is navigated. This shift suggests a future where the most valuable digital assets are not the largest platforms, but the most trusted curators who can filter the synthetic deluge.