You’ve Clocked Some AI Content… Now What? Conversations in Education

Kate Costello
Aug 25
4 min read

Updated: Sep 3

We are living in one of the strangest transitions in creative and digital history. Artificial Intelligence is everywhere. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not I’d probably agree with you, but in a world obsessed with making things cheaper, quicker and easier than ever - I can’t imagine AI is going anywhere anytime soon.

As someone in the creative space, lots of people are fascinated to hear my take on it all - but I’m more interested in the way we, as consumers of everyday media, engage with AI generated content. Most conversations I have about it with friends and co-workers often start and stop at the same point: clocking the AI, and then dismissing it.

The Pleasure of “Catching AI”

You’ve probably had this moment. A suspiciously repetitive emoji sequence in a caption. A random dash or a misuse of a Te Reo Māori phrase in a blog. Or maybe that viral “bunnies on a trampoline” video that supposedly came from a CCTV camera.

Your brain perks up: “That’s AI!!! I caught you!”

And there’s a small hit of satisfaction in that discovery. But what usually comes next? We swipe on, file the content under “slop,” and don’t think any further.

That instinct is worth examining. Because while spotting AI “in the wild” feels powerful, we need to ask: what do we actually do with that insight?

What Do We Mean by “Slop”?

If you’re not up with the terms just yet - The internet has a new word: slop.

Slop is the next-generation spam: low-quality, mass-produced AI content that clogs up platforms and algorithms. It’s filler content designed for clicks, ad revenue, or engagement farming, and we’re seeing it everywhere.

In June 2025, John Oliver devoted a segment of Last Week Tonight to warning about slop’s impact on media ecosystems (The Guardian).
Researchers at Oxford’s Reuters Institute called AI slop “a quiet flood,” pointing out that it risks eroding trust in journalism and information online (Reuters Institute).
Others, like New York Magazine, have described slop as “the internet on autopilot,” where content mills are simply outsourcing their churn to machines (NYMag).

In short, slop is real, it’s everywhere, and yes it’s usually pretty easy to spot.

But here’s the critical part: just because something is AI-generated, doesn’t mean it’s slop.

The Garbage In, Garbage Out Rule

Like all tools, AI reflects the quality of the input.

Feed it biased, sloppy, or shallow prompts, and you’ll get shallow slop in return.
But feed it trusted research, a clear purpose, thoughtful structuring, and authentic expertise, and it can produce content that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with manually created work.

Harvard Business Review summed this up well in 2024: “AI won’t replace creativity, but it will amplify the inputs we give it. Garbage in, garbage out remains as true as ever.”

This distinction matters. Because as we adapt to AI, the question isn’t whether a piece of content is human or AI-made, but whether it is intentional, reliable, and valuable.

Our AI Experiment at Coactive Education

At Coactive Education, this isn’t just theory, we’ve been testing it in real time with our new GROW Literacy Labs.

Teachers are asking for pre-recorded workshops that are affordable, accessible, and engaging. Historically, there were only two paths:

A shaky Zoom recording of a facilitator, complete with interruptions, on-the-spot stumbles, and awkward tech glitches.
A polished but prohibitively expensive video shoot, with lights, mics, editing teams, and a facilitator under pressure to perform flawlessly.

Neither model served teachers well.

So we introduced mAIa, our AI presenter.

Here’s how it works: facilitators create the content. We give that content to mAIa, who produces a polished, hour-long workshop. She doesn’t lose her mic, doesn’t need retakes, and can be instantly translated. Most importantly, she’s delivering content rooted in facilitator expertise and pedagogy - not machine guesswork. It's the way AI needs to be used in Education.

mAIa is AI. But she’s not slop.

Rethinking the Question

So here’s my challenge:

When you’re talking about a piece of content and the question of “is this AI?” comes up, don’t stop there. Add an AND.

Yes, it’s AI-generated, AND it’s rage-bait designed to farm engagement, so I’ll scroll past.
Yes, it’s AI-generated, AND it gave me a whimsical moment of joy- like trampoline bunnies. No harm done.
Yes, it’s AI-generated, AND it’s built from trusted research, designed by experts, and delivered in an engaging way.

The real conversation isn’t about AI itself. It’s about intention, expertise, and value.

Final Thoughts

We’re in a transitional moment, and it’s natural to feel wary about what AI is doing to our feeds. But if we only play “spot the slop,” we’re missing the bigger picture.

AI is a mirror. It can reflect the shallowest parts of our culture, or it can amplify the best of our human creativity and expertise. The difference lies in how we use it.

And that’s the question I’ll leave you with: next time you clock some AI, will you dismiss it - or will you ask what sits behind it?