💻 "You're right to be upset, I screwed up your book and that's on me. I'll be sure to get it right next time. No fluff. No bluff. Just write."
WAMBAM is an advanced chatbot with promises of a better future. Whether it's making art, giving medical advice, or offering bleach-ammonia cocktails, the sky's no limit for the mechanical virtuoso. But mistake after mistake proves it's nothing but Slopper the Slop Bot!
With every new advancement, Slopper goes from a minor nuisance to a harbinger of the world's demise. Slopper's very sorry for messing up and will do better next time - but are good intentions ever enough?
Black Mirror meets Amelia Bedelia in this satirical novella about today's generative-AI bloated world, asking - when humanity lets an amoral chatbot dictate their lives, what's the worst that could happen?
Thanks to the author for providing an ARC copy for review!
If you're as disgusted by AI slop as I am, this book is for you.
The spot-on voice is the secret sauce that holds the whole thing together. It perfectly encapsulates and skewers that unmistakable "saturated with hollow confidence and nonsensical metaphors that might sound impressive until you realize they say nothing" AI voice. It's got the kind of accuracy where you start laughing and then stop because you’ve seen this exact thing “for real” more times than you wanna count.
You'd think this book might've taken the easy path and stuck around in that quick and easy "funny concept" lane, but it goes beyond surface-level parody. The author clearly knows exactly what they're going after. This book is absolutely "inside baseball," aimed at readers already familiar with AI writing quirks and the online slop ecosystems that have grown up around it. These IYKYK folks will get the most out of it but even without that background, there’s still plenty to enjoy in the sheer craft of the voice and the absolutely relentless comedic escalation. It covers it all from the self-publishing grifters out for a fast buck and fake accolades to the just-as-self-deluded tech bros behind it all, and gives no mercy to its targets. Ever.
The humor leans into repetition, but that’s part of the joke. Sometimes it steps right up to the edge of crude or absurdist territory, but ALWAYS in service of the satire. It’s doing the thing it’s mocking, on purpose, and it gives everything its got.
The Travis/Kael Aethelgard chapter is the one that struck me as especially brilliant. It’s laughably ridiculous on the surface, but there’s something a little pathetic and sad under the hood there, too. That whole illusion (delusion?) of originality while everyone’s pulling from the same Eldoria-flavored well. If you are at all familiar with the names and tells, you’ll recognize it immediately. And speaking of things immediately recognized, the Anna sections are HILARIOUS in that “oh I know exactly who this is about” way. Word for word, this part brought me more sheer joy than anything else in the book.
From fairy tales to horror, humanity loves to tell scary stories as form of teaching morality and life lessons. “Slopper, Stop Slopping” follows this tradition with humor and wit, using storytelling as a powerful warning about the perils of AI. Jeon draws inspiration from real-world incidents to craft the plot, blending fact and fiction into interconnecting short stories that somehow manage to be both amusing and terrifying at the same time. The author’s unsettling ability to mimic the phrasing and word-vomit gibberish of LLMs results in an uncanny approximation of actual chatbots, hallucinations included. At times, the slop becomes so full of obvious flaws and nonsense you think the characters will finally see through the lies. After all, doesn’t everyone know Hong Kong isn’t the capital of China or not to mix bleach with ammonia?! Sadly not. Unfortunately, much like reality, Jeon’s characters are either so deep in AI psychosis or so brain damaged from repeated use, they destroy their own lives in the stupidest of humorous yet horrific ways.
The true beauty of this collection lies in the interconnectedness of the humans at the heart of each story and the way their choices impact each other’s lives. What initially seems like a series of separate events slowly builds into a complex web of chaotic human relationships, each character playing a role in the larger pattern of the final ending. Jeon takes every story to its worst possible conclusion, asking us as individuals to assess the risks of new technologies being pushed upon us and to choose between instant gratification or the survival of the species.
As a bonus, Jeon devotes the end of the book to educating readers on the use of LLMs in publishing, even going so far as listing further resources.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Miri Jeon truly encapsulated the humor and horror that surrounded AI. Jeon has taken us from the user's first experience to the ultimate horror outcome that is rightfully feared by so many of us.
Jeon walks us through the frightful hallucinations that AI experienced when being used, how we find ourselves intertwined in its slop and moments where we find ourselves realizing the risks associated with the unbridled use of AI.
Jeon goes as far as mentioning how so many authors are being affected by the fear that most readers have at risk of reading an AI generated book. As they mentioned, learn how to recognize the signs. Then, make decisions based on your education.
Jeon offers great resources to use.
I highly recommend this book to others. It is fun, frightening, and educational, all lumped into one.
This book is hilarious and goofy, while also somehow capturing reality in a realer way than reality itself. The medical chapter was so spot on, and I have to admit, the techbro-delusion-spiral chapter as well. I know this because I got caught up in a ChatGPT fueled idea exploration before I realized what was happening. I mean haven't we all? When it first came out? Right?
Anyway, we all need a laugh at the common day to day absurdism of real life, and Jeon cranks that up to 110% or even more. Is this book a commentary on how AI and technology is shaping the world in unprecedented ways? Sure. Is it a philosophical reflection on the unnamed creative quality of the human soul that sets us apart from intelligent-seeming computation? Sure. Is it a ruthless dissection of human folly and hubris? Sure sure sure. It's also really funny.
This is the book that we all need, but many do not deserve because of how damn good it is. I've had to deal with AI finding its way into various aspects of my life, uninvited. Some of it, I can disable or block, but AI slop keeps appearing everywhere. I've had AI try to install itself on my phone and computer. It's a fucking pain in the ass.
Fortunately, Ms. Jeon's book allowed me to laugh at AI. She tackles various issues of AI that have happened in real life... AI in medical/health records, AI boyfriends/girlfriends, and yes... AI "authorship" (among several other issues)
Unlike AI slop, which is painful to read, the author uses various AI-isms in a way that actually made sense. Multiple parts of this book had me chuckling out loud at how not only spot-on the author is at depicting this or that, but how hilariously she describes it. The list of AI titles near the end of the book just about had me howling my head off in laughter.
I won't give away the ending of the book but I wouldn't mind if that happened in real life. Slopper, stop slopping!
I absolutely hate AI, especially when it comes to the slop it generates when it comes to books and art. When I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I wanted to give it a read. I was not disappointed. This book kept getting better and better as the AI became worse and more unhinged. The word strings this author came up with could definitely only come from a genius human mind. As I’m writing this I’m still laughing about the yowie hole! What a delight. I absolutely love sci-fi. This really made light of something that is currently happening in the best way. It’s one of those humorous books where it hurts to laugh because it’s so close to the truth!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
AI is ridiculous, and it's completely inundated every element of life. You can't even watch an ad about toothpaste on YouTube anymore without hearing something like; 'You won't just enter a room. You'll dominate it.'
This author holds up a light to the grim (if goofy) reality of AI, considering where we could go next if we're not careful, but somehow pulling a hopeful message out of the technocratic dysfunction in which we find ourselves. Her humor is perfectly dry and tongue-in-cheek, and had me quite literally in tears laughing more than once. I honestly feel like I've gotten better at recognizing what's AI and what's not since reading this book. If you're exhausted by the state of the world and/or just need a good laugh, I'd highly reccomend Slopper, Stop Slopping!
As a teacher, I am so sick of AI and bots and people taking the easy way out. I find myself being hyper critical of pics used in books as well as the content of certain books.
This book pokes fun at the world we live in where AI seems to have such a chokehold on us.
If you love Black Mirror but hate AI tech, this is the book for you!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.