« What Altman is describing is a world of creativity without craft. Will Manidis, a start-up founder and investor, convincingly argued in a Substack post earlier this year that “slop emerges when we eliminate not just toil (the burdensome aspects of work) but labor itself (the meaningful human engagement with creation).” It is, in other words, the removal of all friction, all agency, and, in turn, all humanity. In the case of a social network, like these SlopTok clones, frictionlessness is highly desirable. Human posters are the node of friction in any social network—they fight, behave erratically, produce content irregularly, and, once they develop enough of an audience, expect a cut of ad revenue. People are the asset, but also the liability. »

-Charlie Warzel in The Atlantic 10/21/25