Why Is AI Slop So Frustrating to Read?

This piece argues that language models lag at writing because language is harder to optimize with straightforward rewards and less economically appealing short-term than capabilities like coding, and it focuses on workplace "slop" such as Slack messages and PR descriptions that readers cannot simply scroll past. It identifies three recurring faults—hidden characters and actions, vague wording, and empty statements with misplaced emphasis—and reports that AI samples show much higher rates of unclear communication than human writing across articles and coding discussions.