Beware the digital ‘slop farmer’

Bloggers and recipe developers put in a tremendous amount of time creating, testing, writing, and photographing before they publish their articles and recipes to be seen by the world. For some, this has led to internet stardom and a profitable career. Others use it as a side gig or even just a creative outlet. There is another kind of content creator that is quickly gaining a significant presence on social media sites, especially Facebook and Pinterest: the digital slop farmer. As the name implies, this is not a dignified profession, and its sole goal is driving clicks and monetizing impressions.

One prolific slop farmer, Jesse Cunningham, is the subject of a recent article on Futurism.com. This particular entrepreneur is a self-described “SEO specialist who leverages the power of AI to drive real results,” and he is unapologetic in his pursuit of clicks. He told an audience of SEO optimizers that he targets fandoms and older women with his content, which often includes copying the work of real bloggers and online creators using AI to generate articles and recipes that mimic those of his competitors.

Meanwhile, real bloggers like Rachel Farnsworth who develop original material claim that “the AI influx on Pinterest, Facebook, and other platforms has had a destructive impact on their businesses.” Cunningham is unfazed by criticism of his work and says that he wants “to disrupt that whole [recipe] industry” because he believes it is “ripe for the taking.”

In a recording of the conversation, one of the attendees at Cunningham’s discussion can be heard asking him how he knows the recipes he is creating through AI actually work. “Of course they work. ChatGPT told me they work,” Cunningham said, appearing puzzled by the question. “What kind of question is that?” So if you clicked on a recipe you spied on Facebook and it was an utter disaster, it might not be you, but rather the fault of sloppily created AI.

Cunningham doesn’t disclose on his Facebook or Pinterest pages that the posts are AI-generated. While one of his Pinterest pages notes in the bio that “we create AI pins and blog posts for all to enjoy,” you would have to click through to the profile page to find out. Most people who click on pins are not going to do that, something that Cunningham surely knows. The disclaimer seems like CYA window dressing.

There are probably good use cases for AI in recipe development. For example, I could see training it on data that included characteristics such as chemical compounds found in certain ingredients and using that to recommend ingredient swaps to help people with food allergies or sensitivities. You could even use it for more creative purposes, but pilfering content from actual recipe developers and using it to generate random, untested recipes is not, as Martha Stewart would say, a good thing.