AI Tools: 7 V's of AI Slop

I took time to read this, chewing on ideas, adding my own thoughts, editing for my personal clarity.  Here are some thoughts I ended up with:

Table 1 introduces the 7Vs in compact form. Each dimension is defined and paired with its analytic consequence, clarifying why slop matters not only as cultural noise but as a structural condition of platform capitalism.

Val note: "epistemic" seems to refer to "body of knowledge; sum of " 

• epistemic: of or relating to knowledge or knowing (.merriam-webster.com/)
• of or relating to knowledge or the conditions for acquiring it.(dictionary.com)

Epistemology is the study of how knowledge is acquired, justified, and defined. (.wikipedia.org/)

Val prompt of Google AI "Please summarize :The 7Vs of AI Slop: A Typology of Generative Waste"

"The 7Vs of AI Slop: A Typology of Generative Waste" by Dag Øivind Madsen and Richard W. Puyt introduces the concept of "AI slop" as low-quality, machine-generated content saturating digital platforms. The paper proposes a typology based on seven dimensions—Volume, Velocity, Variety, Value, Verification, Visibility, and Virality—to explain the proliferation and impact of this generative waste, arguing it is a structural feature of contemporary media ecologies rather than a temporary issue.

Val prompt: Please list the main points of the paper

AI slop is defined as the large volume of low-quality, machine-generated content proliferating across digital platforms. This phenomenon is characterized as a structural feature of modern media and platform capitalism, not a temporary issue. The paper introduces a "7Vs" typology—Volume, Velocity, Variety, Value, Verification, Visibility, and Virality—to explain how this content is created and spread. The proliferation of AI slop poses risks to knowledge, creative industries, and democratic discourse by degrading the information environment. The 7Vs framework offers a conceptual tool for studying and addressing slop-saturated environments. You can read the full paper to learn more.

Val Prompt: In this context, what does "epistemic" mean

In the context of the paper, the term "epistemic" relates to knowledge, how it is acquired, and its reliability or truthfulness. 

The paper discusses "epistemic pollution" and the "erosion of cultural and epistemic worth," which refers to: 

• The nature and quality of knowledge itself: AI slop introduces false, misleading, or trivial information that degrades the overall quality of shared information.
• The processes of knowing and understanding: The overwhelming volume of low-quality content undermines the ability of individuals and society to discern truth, acquire genuine understanding, and make informed judgments.
• Trust in information systems: AI-generated content makes it harder to verify information or trust traditional sources like journalism and academia, leading to an "epistemic crisis" where people struggle to agree on shared facts.

In essence, AI slop is an "epistemic carcinogen" because it attacks our collective capacity to build, share, and trust knowledge. 

This AI Overview seems right:

The "7 V's of AI slop" is a framework used to analyze and describe the proliferation and characteristics of low-quality, machine-generated content. 

The seven V's are:

• Volume: The immense scale at which AI-generated content can be produced.
• Velocity: The speed at which this content is generated and circulated across platforms.
• Variety: The wide range of forms and genres the content takes (e.g., generic essays, clickbait blogs, synthetic images, deepfake videos).
• Value: The erosion of cultural and epistemic (knowledge-based) worth caused by the abundance of low-quality content.
• Verification: The problems of establishing truth and trust in a slop-saturated information environment (e.g., AI hallucinations and factual errors).
• Visibility: The way algorithmic systems amplify and push this content into user feeds.
• Virality: The meme-like diffusion and rapid spread of AI slop across the internet. 

This framework positions AI slop not as a minor nuisance, but as a significant structural feature of modern media ecosystems that poses risks to knowledge infrastructures, creative industries, and public information. 

Google AI Overview of SSRN Reputation

SSRN is a large, open-access repository for scholarly papers, primarily in the social sciences, but also encompassing a wide range of other disciplines. It is not a peer-reviewed journal itself, but it is a platform for sharing preprints and early-stage research before or during the formal peer-review process. Reviews of the platform highlight its value for rapid dissemination of research and global collaboration, while also emphasizing that users should be aware that not all papers have been peer-reviewed. 

Strengths

• Rapid dissemination: SSRN allows researchers to share their work quickly, making new findings accessible to a global audience before they are formally published.
• Open access: It provides free access to a vast collection of scholarly papers, making it a valuable research tool for both authors and readers.
• Collaboration: The platform facilitates interaction among researchers and enables the rapid development of ideas and subsequent research.
• Wide range of content: Beyond just preprints, SSRN hosts various research outputs like working papers, book chapters, presentations, and dissertations.

Considerations

• Not a peer-reviewed journal: It is crucial to understand that SSRN is a preprint server, not a peer-reviewed journal. Papers posted there have not necessarily undergone formal peer review, so they should be treated with the same caution as any other unreviewed work.
  • Varying quality: The content on SSRN is diverse. While it hosts high-quality research, the lack of mandatory peer review means users need to be critical of the work they find.
  • Ownership and licensing: Since being acquired by Elsevier, some users have raised concerns about potential future changes to its permissive licensing model, though Elsevier has stated it would retain the existing license structure.

How to use it

• For researchers: Upload your work to share it quickly and get feedback. It is a good place to establish precedence for your ideas.
• For readers: Use it to stay up-to-date on the latest research in your field. Remember to critically evaluate the papers you find, especially if they are preprints.
• For searching: You can search by keywords, author, topic, or network to find relevant papers in the eLibrary.

Google References:  Looks like it is being recommended by Authoritative and Respected Sources

TMI Social Science Review The Thurgood Marshall Institute https://tminstituteldf.org › The Thurgood Marshall Institute now houses all of its publications on SSRN, formerly known as the Social Science Research network.

• Uploading to SSRN - Faculty Scholarship Support Arizona State University https://libguides.law.asu.edu › c.php Aug 6, 2025 —The Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a huge open-access repository for scholarly papers in law, the social sciences, business, and some other disciplines. Hundreds of thousands of authors have posted abstracts and papers. SSRN has over 750,000 abstracts and most of the papers can be downloaded for free. It is a great tool for research, for disseminating information, and for keeping up with new developments.
• Consolidating and Leveraging Law Faculty Scholarship Emory University https://guides.libraries.emory.edu › c.php Jun 30, 2025 — SSRN (previously known as the Social Science Research Network) is an online research forum where scholars and researchers can upload their works.
• SSRN as an Initial Revolution in Academic Knowledge Aggregation and Dissemination Aug 7, 2025 Within this paper we consider our results of using the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) over a period of 18 months to distribute our working papers to the research community. Our experiences have been quite positive, with SSRN serving as a platform both to inform our colleagues about our research as well as inform us about related research (through email and telephoned conversations of colleagues who discovered our paper on SSRN). ResearchGateh ttps://www.researchgate.net › publication › 41108623.
• Topic Selection - Writing Notes and Comments Stanford University https://guides.law.stanford.edu › c.php Jul 30, 2025 — SSRN (Social Science Research Network). Contains a Legal Scholarship Network, where law scholars post working papers and published articles. 
• And so on...
• The University of Alabama https://guides.library.law.ua.edu › c.php
• Deakin University https://deakin.libguides.com › c.php
• University of San Diego https://lawlibguides.sandiego.edu › c.php
• Loyola University Chicago https://lawlibguides.luc.edu › firstyearlegalresearch › law...
• University of Maine System https://lawguides.mainelaw.maine.edu › humanrightslibra...