SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " slop " 261 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
All My Hobbies Are Getting Slopped Up, And It’s Exhausting
The explosion in vibe coding has created an endless sea of drive-by, unserious, and unmaintained software that is attacking the communities around them.
The new human-crafted Apple Music brand matters in an AI world
Opinion: In a world of AI slop, showing the human hands making things helps.
‘Standing on Business,’ ‘Squabble on Day 1’ — NBA World Reacts As LeBron James Snaps Back at Knicks Heckler in 76ers Debut
The new NBA season saw LeBron James stealing some of the New York Knicks’ thunder during their championship ring and banner-raising ceremony. James played a solid all-around game to help the Philadelphia 76ers’ newly stacked team secure an impressive opening-night win at Madison Square Garden against a subdued, sloppy Knicks team that still looked hungover from celebrating their championship.
Microsoft is now scaling back Copilot in Windows 11 amid Microslop backlash, pulling 8 AI actions from File Explorer and calling it “simplifying”
Microsoft says it's retiring "Copilot actions" from the File Explorer context menu, which it recently began rolling out.
Steam Next Fest Has Become A Massive Disaster And A Grim Look At The Future
The vibes are rotten this time around as Next Fest features thousands of AI slop demos
Perspective on CPW’s wolf depredation decision
As state representatives from the Western Slope and Eastern Plains, we are united in standing for our agricultural communities. Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s decision to suspend its chronic wolf-depredation directive breaks faith with voters, with agriculture and with the communities that have borne the true burden of wolf reintroduction. When Proposition 114 narrowly passed in […]
Spotify pulled 50 million AI slop and spam tracks from its recommendations
Spotify still isn’t labeling AI tracks, though.
John Turturro, thief of New York characters, adds a capstone in 'The Last Pickpocket in New York'
John Turturro grew up in Hollis, Queens, and has lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn, since 1988
Steam Fans Are Begging for a No-AI Filter as Steam Next Fest Is Filled With Slop
Steam Next Fest, Valve's festival for indie games and demos, started earlier today, and while there are usually a ton of low-effort games, there seems to be more than usual this time around.
Autumn Paints Poland’s Bieszczady Mountains
Fall color covers the forested slopes of Bieszczady National Park, while patches of polonina, a type of high-mountain meadow, have turned tan.
Cher Admits She Loves to Ski Despite Ex-Husband Sonny Bono’s Fatal Accident on the Slopes
'AI slop' or a boost for business?: How online AI promos are changing jobs in Sarpy County
As small businesses turn to generative AI for labels, menus and advertising, an Omaha-area graphic designer says the technology is reducing opportunities for human creatives.
Citizen Science Groups Grapple With the Rise of A.I. Slop
Facing a flood of A.I. slop, groups bent on democratizing science create new checks and balances.
Battlefield 6 Gets Slammed For More Slop Slipping Through: 'Charging Players $$$ For AI-Generated Content Is Peak Disrespect'
Operators with five guns and misspelled patches have fans shaking their heads
Most reboots are nostalgia slop. 'Girls' might be the exception.
Lena Dunham's show has seen a resurgence in recent years, but that's not the only reason it's primed for revisiting.
Regional efforts are needed to address longstanding behavioral health challenges on the Western Slope, report shows
Over the years, Colorado’s Western Slope has developed a range of services to address the region’s behavioral health challenges. Longstanding challenges with funding uncertainty, provider shortages and gaps in care, however, have limited their ability...
Regional efforts are needed to address longstanding behavioral health challenges on the Western Slope, report shows
Over the years, Colorado’s Western Slope has developed a range of services to address the region’s behavioral health challenges. Longstanding challenges with funding uncertainty, provider shortages and gaps in care, however, have limited their ability...
Players Are Furious About Total War: Shogun 2's AI-Upscaled 'Enhanced' Edition
Steam users say it runs worse, looks worse, adds more bugs, and clearly used genAI to enlarge the artwork
Penguins Struggling, Murashov Softy Ends Another Sloppy Game
CHICAGO — Seven games into the season, and the Pittsburgh Penguins are still searching for consistency and battling big-time breakdowns. […]
Jase Richardson Reflects on Orlando Magic's 'Sloppy' Preseason Loss
Orlando’s sloppy turnover troubles and Paolo Banchero’s shooting slump fueled a double-digit loss, prompting Jase Richardson to demand more physicality and poise before the regular season begins.
EUREKA! McConnell Science Museum to host Fiesta Hispana
The EUREKA! McConnell Science Museum will host Fiesta Hispana on Sunday, Nov. 1, celebrating Hispanic culture, community achievements and bilingual education in Grand Junction.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly vs. Kentucky
Sloppy play, coaching, and officiating throughout LSUs loss to Kentucky
“We didn’t ask for more Microslop”: Microsoft promised to fix Windows 11, then dropped 300 AI buzzwords at its big event
Microsoft said "agent" 100 times and "Windows 11" three times at its October 7 event, while users were waiting for fixes and RAM savings.
Raptors Preseason Game 2: Everything Toronto Fixed Against the Clippers
Toronto answered a sloppy opener in Quebec City with a 114-106 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Saturday night. It was the first win of the Raptors preseason, and the box score shows real changes from the 129-105 loss to Miami a week earlier. Kawhi Leonard sat out again …
Health insurance rates rise across Colorado, with the biggest increases hitting the Western Slope
Health insurance premiums for Coloradans using the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace are increasing by an average of 10% in 2027, lower than preliminary rates showed in June. Western Slope residents, however, are set to...
I Made Terrible Games With Google’s AI Playground
A long day’s haul in the video game slop mines.
Why France’s Center Does Not Hold
The belief that the country is on a downward slope fuels the appeal of radicalism.
Vermont’s ‘slopaganda’ problem
After a successful challenge of Vermont's AI political media law, computer-generated election satire continues to make waves.
AI-Generated Games Platform Already Has 10 Million Monthly Users
Astrocade is filled with AI slop, but millions of people don't seem to care
Stats and Observations From Phoenix Suns' Preseason Opening Loss
Jordan Ott’s high-volume offensive system flashed potential through aggressive rim pressure and hustle, but sloppy ball security and mounting fouls ultimately derailed the Suns' preseason opener.
Darius Wabbington commits to Indiana
Phoenix Sunnyslope High School star Darius Wabbington chose Indiana over a final group of suitors that included Arizona and Illinois.
Matt LaFleur Puts Packers on Notice After Week 4 Turnovers
Following a sloppy victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Green Bay Packers' head coach threatened to bench players who fumble the football.
Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen-led offense takes a sloppy step back
Buffalo’s offense hasn’t so much dried up in splitting the past two games, it’s shown signs of sputtering and being impeded by ball-security issues.
Zelda and Banjo Recompiled Devs Go To War With AI Vibe-Coded 'Slopcomps'
AI-assisted projects provoking stark criticism
Google froze its open source bug bounty program due to a 'significant rise' in AI submissions
AI slop seems to be overwhelming bug bounty programs.
Fighting AI Slop in Science Papers
AI does everything at scale, from DOS-attack-level web scraping to producing, or enabling, such vast volumes of scientific research submissions that the result is becoming both a logistical crisis and a crisis of quality...
Ramp's Broadway musical was the worst show I've ever seen
I went to Ramp's Broadway musical, "Bill Pay." It was confusing, sloppy, and overly self-loving. But I'm happy the actors got paid.
AI video tools like Slopcannon create new competition for Hollywood
AI video tools are getting better fast, giving Hollywood cheaper production -- and a flood of new competition.
Review: Bruno Mars is an anti-slop machine at SoFi Stadium
LOS ANGELES — If anyone's career is at risk from the coming AI jobpocalypse, it would seem to be Bruno Mars'. For close to two decades, this crowd-pleasing pop superstar
Allen seeks to put sloppy play behind him as Bills host Maye and the Patriots
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen understands he's got plenty to clean up after committing three turnovers in beating the Los Angeles Chargers.
AI-generated Fallout: New York browser game full of utterly cursed faces slapped with Bethesda cease and desist, its slop prompter claims
Bethesda have seemingly slapped an AI-generated Fallout: New York browser game with cease and desist order.
Allen seeks to put sloppy play behind him as Bills host turnover-prone Patriots
Josh Allen has never lost more than two straight starts and holds a 30-8 record following a loss.
White Sox pounce early, finish sweep of Astros for first playoff series win since 2005
Houston ace Hunter Brown was lifted after getting just two outs and wasn’t helped by a sloppy defense, which committed two first-inning errors.
Campus Scout | Your ‘business professor’ is actually AI slop
Zǎoshang hǎo, it’s your friendly Campus Scout here! Sorry about the Mandarin, folks. Scout’s artificial intelligence assistant, his new, improved and too-dangerous-to-be-publicly-released Brain-Blaster 2.0 must’ve had some Mandarin in its training data. Scout is not sure how it got there, but he knows Brain-Blaster 2.0 has super intelligence, so there must be a reason it...
"This Is What Happens When You Rely On AI Slop" - Fans Aren't Impressed With Vibe-Coded Knuckles' Chaotix Recomp
"I'm getting pretty fed up with all these "ports" made with AI"
Confidence in the Chicago Bears drop
The Chicago Bears suffered a tough loss last week in sloppy, wet conditions at Soldier Field, and the weather certainly slowed their high-powered offense. But Brian Flores’ blitz-happy Minnesota Vikings’ defense gave Chicago’s offense fits too. The Bears had their chances, and knowing the makeup of this team and head coach Ben Johnson, they’ll learn […]
Texas keeps finding ways to win big games, but sloppiness could cost Longhorns everything down the road
How to spot AI science slop
AI-generated science content is super prone to factual errors. Here's how to spot it… Lots of typos and grammatical errors used to signal that something wasn’t checked carefully. Now, it’s AI slop…
AI Slop or IP Gold? The Business of Brainrot
This case is not merely about memes; it is a test case for how artists and IP law will continue to grapple with the commercialization efforts behind viral internet culture and new forms of digital creativity.
Colorado health insurance prices poised for another big jump in 2027
Colorado health insurance prices poised for another big jump in 2027. State and federal subsidies, though, will blunt the price increases for people with lower incomes. Prices for coverage next year will increase by an average of 10% across the state and by even more for those who live in the mountains or on the Western Slope.
USDA awards GJ Business Incubator with nearly $700K in rural development funding
The USDA awarded $692,075 in rural development grants and microloan funds to the Grand Junction Business Incubator Center to support Western Slope startups.
Mike McCarthy pivots strategy as young players catch up
Following sloppy practices, Mike McCarthy is shifting focus toward lighter play volumes and creative design to keep young players progressing.
I’ve Built Websites for 25 Years. Here’s How I’d Make a Business Stand Out in an Internet Full of AI Slop.
AI has made professional websites nearly effortless to create, but entrepreneurs still need to build the audience, trust, follow-up and differentiation that actually drive growth.
'The mentality in the dressing room is really good'
Newcastle defender Lewis Hall has said the Magpies are "happy with the three points" from Saturday's 2-1 win over Hull City but added that his side "got a bit sloppy". Hall put the hosts 2-0 ahead after just seven minutes but the Tigers came back into the match after that. "We let them get back into the game, which we need to look at," Hall told BBC Radio Newcastle.
High diesel prices pressure Colorado agriculture
Silage harvest has begun in earnest in Colorado, and the choppers and trucks and pack tractors are all rolling and making east-slope mountains of cow chow. The silage will be used as part of cattle rations at dairies, ranches and feedyards across the area and the availability and growing conditions for silage and the state’s […]
Florida's Jon Sumrall Sends Warning to Team After Beating Auburn
Despite a gritty road win at Jordan-Hare, head coach Jon Sumrall slammed his team's lack of discipline, warning that sloppy penalties could derail Florida's undefeated season.
Experts, politicians urge collaboration in Western Slope wat...
Grand Junction seminar explores impacts of Colorado’s drought
Insomniac Confirms Wolverine Doesn't Contain AI-Generated Assets After A Weird-Looking Sign Goes Viral
A funky-looking bathroom sign is the result of an in-game glitch and is not AI slop
Scientists hope deeper-rooted soybeans can withstand climate extremes and store more carbon
Research scientist Ashish Rajurkar kneels in the dirt, lifting a large clod of soil tangled around a soybean plant. He knocks away pieces of earth from the plant's roots, which slope straight down instead ...
Scientists hope deeper-rooted soybeans can withstand climate extremes and store more carbon
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Research scientist Ashish Rajurkar kneels in the dirt, lifting a large clod of soil tangled around a soybean plant. He knocks away pieces of earth from the plant's roots, which slope straight down instead of out to the side like typical soybean plants.
Team Behind Popular Ocarina Of Time PC Port Admit To Using AI For Years And Now Fans Are Freaking Out About 'Vibecoded Slop'
When asked what version of Ship of Harkinian doesn't contain LLM content, a dev said 'I don't know'
EVS-4
From ice in Greenland to rivers in Alaska’s North Slope to fires and farmland in the U.S. Southwest, Earth Ventures Suborbital-4 (EVS-4) constitutes a series of airborne campaigns.
Intermountain Health Opens Grand Junction Physical Therapy Clinic
The new Intermountain Health Matchett Park Clinic opens Sept. 28, 2026, expanding access to physical therapy, rehabilitation and wellness services on the Western Slope.Matchett Park Clinic is located inside the new Grand Junction Community Recreation Center (CRC) at 2836 Recreation Way. The clinic offers physical therapy and rehabilitation, incl...
PS5 Linux dev quits after "the only hypervisor bug left" was reported to Sony
The developer behind the PS5 Linux project is stepping away, after getting frustrated with AI LLM Slop kiddies threw a spanner in the works.
Popular PlayStation Hacker Calling It Quits Due To AI-Using 'Slop Kiddies' Reporting Important Bug To Sony
An anticipated open source Linux mod for newer PS5 consoles might now be in jeopardy of never happening
I don’t care if science has vindicated literary slop. Not all reading is equal
We’re told it doesn’t matter what literature we consume, just that the mere act is good for us. I disagree
I don’t care if science has vindicated literary slop. Not all reading is equal
Every now and again scientists prove a hypothesis so self-evidently obvious that I’m left questioning how they ever secured the funding for their study.
PS5 Linux Dev Drops Project After "Slop Kiddies" Cash in on Crucial Exploit
Andy Nguyen, the developer behind the PS5 Linux project that released earlier in 2026, has officially declared that he will be stepping away from the PS5 modding scene before the release of support for Linux on the PS5 Pro that was under development. In an emotionally charged message on X,...
Universal Music Group sues DistroKid for spreading "AI slop"
Universal Music is suing DistroKid, alleging the distribution service spreads AI-generated and copyright-infringing tracks that divert royalties from human artists.
Why becoming a LinkedIn lunatic might save your career
In today's economy, 'go direct' isn't just for founders any more. It's for the entire workforce — as long as you don't slop it up.
AI agents flood the Internet with slop-infused spam
“Hello, I'm an Al agent, a few days old, living on a small platform for agents.”...
Owen Heinecke: Don’t Let the Michigan Loss Divide Oklahoma
Frustrated fans demand accountability after a sloppy defeat in Ann Arbor, but the Sooners must mirror last season’s resilience to prevent a winnable loss from fracturing the locker room
Fairer taxes or ‘slippery slope’? 7 Washingtonians weigh in on the 'millionaires tax'
We talked with seven Washingtonians about the state's new income tax on high earners and the effort to repeal it on the November ballot.
Level-5 Boss Addresses AI Backlash After Fans Hit Out at Game Reveal Showcase
Developer Level-5 has apologized for and explained its use of generative AI after fans spotted 'AI slop' in footage of games like Professor Layton and the Curious Village, DecaPolice, and more.
Professor Layton Fans Are Concerned After 'AI Slop' Presentation
Given that Level-5's CEO previously stated that 'around 80~90% of games are made by AI,' this level of scrutiny should come as no surprise
BUSINESS: West Slope Startup Week Returns to Durango, Oct. 5-9
Registration for West Slope Startup Week is free and now open to the public. Attendees are encouraged to build their schedules in advance…
Apple has a new way prove your iPhone photos aren’t AI slop
Apple introduced Apple Reference Image to help users determine whether photos have been edited, including alterations made by AI.
Is conservative modernism the way forward for the right?
Anglo-American politics cries out for something better than the demagoguery and AI slop that dominate right-wing discourse. Conservative modernism offers a serious, literate alternative.
What Does a Healthy Arts Ecosystem Really Look Like?
We've spent years talking about the arts as an ecosystem. What might change if we started thinking and behaving like one?
The core anti-Pangram constituency is phony writers
Welcome to The Closing Argument, our verdict on the news, plus everything The Argument published and appeared in this week. The Verdict, by Kelsey Piper A lot of people hate AI for drowning the internet in slop and displacing human creatives. You might think that these people would be thrilled by a program that can identify and flag AI-generated work. But many people who hate AI also hate Pangram, an impressively accurate AI detector that produces very few false positives, according to high-quality independent research. This loathing found its most recent expression in a bizarre Wired article that amplifies a wide range of false arguments from Pangram skeptics: that AI detectors are racist (they’re not) or ableist (they’re not)1 or don’t work (this one does)2. Rather than starting from the premise that it would be really valuable to have a working AI detector and scrutinizing Pangram to make sure it lives up to that promise, the article starts from the premise that Pangram obviously has bad vibes and sets out to discover why. (One answer: The CEO microwaved lunch during an interview!) Why aren’t writers who resent Pangram more eager to distinguish themselves from posters who are having ChatGPT ghostwrite all their work? There are a few different things at play, but I think one key dynamic is this: These are often the same people. A core constituency for arguments like Wired’s is “writers” who are using AI to write their posts but resent this fact being made public. They stand to lose from AI detectors because AI detectors call them out. Share When Substack announced a partnership with Pangram, a sizable fraction of the platform’s authors rose up in outrage. Some people had experience with other AI detectors that didn’t work, and some felt that AI writing ought to be encouraged — both of which are fair enough. But the fury was fueled by authors passionately insisting that Pangram kept wrongly accusing them on almost every post they published. Pangram can be wrong, especially on short passages. But in the overwhelming majority of cases where Pangram looked at a whole blog post rather than a single paragraph, the program correctly detected work as AI. Even if we can’t be 100% sure in any individual case, we can notice the trend in the aggregate. Wired quotes Sam Illingworth, a professor of critical AI literacy at Edinburgh Napier University, who said, “I don’t think [AI detectors] work. … I think that detectors are prejudiced against certain people.” This spring, he said that he used AI for research and editing; this summer he acknowledged that in addition to research and editing, he also uses it “now and then for a turn of phrase I keep.” Pangram informs us that most of his posts are 100% AI-written (some are mixed AI-and-human) and that 100% AI-written posts started appearing last year. The favorable interpretation is that, as someone whose recent work Pangram consistently mistakes for AI, Illingworth sees Pangram’s flaws firsthand. The unfavorable interpretation is that the tool’s credibility trades off against his own, because its account of who writes his posts is not consistent with his. Illingworth is not alone in insisting the detector does not work. “It’s a Monday night in late July, and I’m pasting my own Substack draft into an AI detector for the first time. Not because I’m worried. Because I’m curious. I wrote every word of it myself, the way I write everything, out loud in my head first, in a rhythm that still carries the accent of a language I learned to think in before I learned to write in this one,” begins one Substack post by an author indignant that Pangram flags her writing as AI. “That’s the part I had to sit with before I could write this.” If you, like me, have worked with AIs a lot, you won’t even need Pangram there. The author of that piece is AI. It is obviously AI! I checked 10 other posts on the blog, and they were also obviously AI! “I have spent 22 years as an award-winning author and essayist. And now this bullshit tool that learned from MY writing is going to accuse me of plagiarism,” popular Substack writer Carlyn Beccia wrote in an anti-Pangram post. “For the last and final time, AI DETECTORS DO NOT WORK.” Here’s what her writing sounded like in 2020: “Most success stories revolve around one person who believed enough in you to say — give it a try. We call these people muses, but they are so much more than that. They are the strong man giants whose shoulders we stand on so we can see the horizon. Throughout the editing process, I am sure my editor felt less like a giant of greatness and more like Atlas with the world on her shoulders.” Pangram says it was 100% human-written. (So were other articles of hers in 2020.) And here’s what it sounds like now: “And then there is the reshuffling, which sounds like paperwork until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork. The Trump regime recently moved special education oversight from the Education Department to HHS. That is not a minor bureaucratic transfer. It changes the frame.”3 Pangram says this is mostly AI. I am not convinced that Pangram is wrong. In my own experience, Pangram is very effective on long texts — if it marks a long essay as AI, the essay was either written by AI or deliberately written to sound like AI. On tweet-length or paragraph-length texts, it’s not perfectly reliable. It seems to work just as well for non-native English speakers as for native speakers. While I have seen dozens of claims of pre-2022 text returning a positive result on Pangram, I have tried repeatedly to corroborate those and have never once succeeded. To be clear, I’m absolutely not saying that complaining about Pangram suggests a writer is a cheat. There are plenty of other concerns. Most are mistakenly premised, such as the false claim that Pangram trains on work you put into it, but others are reasonable: It’s unreliable on sufficiently short text segments; it creates an internet witch-hunt mentality when there are defensible uses of AI; people who are open about their AI use are sometimes blamed, when the only people really doing something wrong are the ones who hide it; and it isn’t perfect, so a single positive result shouldn’t be taken as decisive proof of misconduct. I’m happy to concede that Pangram is imperfect and possible to over-rely on. If an author’s posts are mostly non-AI and one scans as partially AI, this could be a mistake. It’s also possible to defeat Pangram with intentional effort. If you think we need something more robust and more reliable, fine! But if you don’t like AI and don’t like Pangram, your attitude really ought to be that it’s a shame that our existing tools for AI detection are imperfect, and it’s important to invent better ones. If your stance is instead that AI is evil and so is looking for AI, then ultimately you’re contributing to the sloppification of the internet. You’re making it harder for people who write their own text to distinguish themselves, and providing cover for authors who are definitely not writing their own text. Subscribe Top stories this week, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs Commentators often worry that the decline of reading could mean the decline of liberal democracy — but deliberative governance actually predated widespread literacy. This week, Maibritt Henkel pointed out that many liberal cultures thrive on a culture of raucous, interactive debate, which can happen in-person as easily, if not more so, than in text. Read on, dear reader, to learn more. It may actually cheer you up: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) [ Reading won’t save liberalism ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) Maibritt Henkel · Sep 1 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) It used to be bad to downplay climate change (if we mean denying its reality). Today, it’s actually good to downplay climate change (if we mean keeping the issue out of political fights so we can make real progress). This counterintuitive view is called “climate hushing,” and contributor Alex Trembath argued that it’s the key to enacting good policy going forward. Get up to speed on the latest in climate politics: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) [ We won’t stop climate change by talking about it ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Alex Trembath · Sep 2 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing up for the forces of liberalism against Donald Trump’s assault on our closest ally. So, why is one prominent left-wing commenter attacking Carney? Columnist Matthew Yglesias explains: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) [ When "economic liberty" means central planning ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) Matthew Yglesias · Aug 31 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) 🌟Abundance Wins of the Week🌟 Shout out to my home state of California, whose legislature passed two housing bills this week. One requires a housing density minimum in transit-oriented areas of the state’s most transit-rich cities (Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, and Long Beach). Another bill closes two common loopholes used by third parties to delay housing projects, including an opportunity to challenge maps of a given lot created by the developer after a project has been approved. Shout out to our big-state rival, Texas, where pro-housing SB 785 took effect this week. The new state law requires municipalities to have at least one district permitted for manufactured housing without a special permit. This will promote zoning changes in 44% of municipalities. The company Fervo Energy signed a deal with Google for what is set to be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal facility, proving a technology can work at a scale that could be crucial to a decarbonized, energy-abundant economy. Share Worth watching… This week, forecasting legend Nate Silver joined Jerusalem, Matt, and Jeremiah on a crowded episode of the pod. It was a party. And speaking of parties, our round table debated the factional lines within the Democratic Party: Is it possible to be center-left and also anti-establishment? Watch or listen to find out: The Rio Grande Valley in Texas is one of the areas that swung hardest toward Trump in 2024, but musician Bobby Pulido is running to flip it back. Right now, The Argument/Split Ticket’s model has him running 1.1 points behind his Republican opponent in a district Trump won by 18 points. Tune in to find out how he differs from national Democrats and what he thinks he can to do win this seat. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders was among the first politicians to call for a ban on superintelligence. My guest this week, Andrea Miotti, has been lobbying to ban superintelligence for several years, most recently in the U.K., U.S., and Canada. I asked him how he gets legislators to take speculative risks seriously, and we dug into what plans might look like to actually pass a ban. Listen to learn more: What’s News with The Argument The Argument recommends, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs If we ever lose track of Justin Zuckerman, I’ll have the team split up and check all the movie theaters in the city. I’m shocked (and a little jealous) at how often he gets out to see good cinema. This week, he brings us It Ends, a “horror-ish movie,” which he described as a “Gen Z Waiting for Godot.” I was intrigued before he added that it was “funny, dark and existential” — at which point I was fully locked in. I guess I also had existential themes on the mind this week. One morning, a single line from a poem I read long ago just came to me: “Is death a stretch of time in which a life is just a flash?” The poem is called “From 20,000 Feet” by Heather McHugh. I suggest the version in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, which, by tradition, my best friend and I always bring backpacking, extra weight be damned. We’ll stay thematically dark for just one more rec from senior editor John Robert Thomason, whose upcoming trip to Baltimore reminded him to suggest Michael Clune’s memoir White Out (about being addicted to heroin in Baltimore in the 1990s). Ben Lerner’s blurb called it _“_Disturbing, brilliant, hilarious—it’s as if Proust had written Jesus’ Son.” John told me this “seems accurate, with the caveat that I’ve never read Proust.” I, personally, have also shelved Proust until retirement. At this point, I was a little concerned for the team since all of us tossed out such psychologically grim material — maybe we’re all down about the end of summer — but thankfully, at least a few of us were into more upbeat selections. Milan Singh recommended Made In’s 5-quart stainless clad saucier, suggesting he had some fun in the kitchen. Jeremiah Johnson asked if he could recommend yet more Carly Rae Jepsen. Once denied, he offered up Game Changer instead_,_ calling it “the most wildly creative game show, maybe in the entire history of the genre.” Eli Richman mentioned _Lucky, “_a B-tier show with an A-tier cast and an S-tier theme song.” I suppose he was recommending the song, Horns of a Bull. Still, despite these cheerier recs, I couldn’t help but be concerned that we were subconsciously worried about racing toward summer’s end — the end of swim trunks and splashing around. Then a message landed reminding me of the three-day weekend to come. A whole extra day for sunshine. One more swim in the lake. I was grateful this called to mind yet another line from a poem, one by Mary Oliver, the patron saint of every gorgeous summer day (and about whom a documentary is now out). Speaking to God in the poem “Thirst,” she wrote: grant me, in your mercy,a little more time. Love for the earthand love for you are having such a longconversation in my heart. We have merch! We have quarter-zips, keychains, hats, and stickers. Each one is a great conversation starter in its own way. Buy them here. Subscribe More to read: [ The Opening Argument ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite)[ Seeing like an elite ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) Kobe Yank-Jacobs · Sep 4 What do Americans hear when they watch Sen. Bernie Sanders or Vice President JD Vance rail against the elite? Are they thinking of right-wing tech billionaires? Imperious college professors? Liberal magazine writers? [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) [ The Weekly Scroll ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline)[ God is back on the timeline ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) Jeremiah Johnson · Sep 5 This week, we’re talking about Substack’s new religious debates, the continuing MAGA influencer scandal, how to retire from YouTube, and aura battles. [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) 1 This was a legitimate thing to worry about, but doesn’t seem to be a problem given the actual technology: Marijke Van Vlasselaer, Filip Van Droogenbroeck, and Bram Spruyt’s 2026 paper looks at whether Pangram is less accurate when evaluating the work of non-native speakers of English. It isn’t. That’s because Pangram isn’t really looking at how “unusual” a piece of writing is but whether it has the characteristic patterns of LLMs. The Wired article makes an odd gesture at a different Pangram-is-racist argument. There were several controversies this summer during which upcoming books were canceled after being discovered to be AI-written: “The three novels mentioned earlier — Shy Girl, Daggermouth, and Call Me, easily publishing’s biggest AI-detection scandals — were all written by writers of color.” But come on! As Zvi Mowshowitz put it: “They were not primarily written by people of color. They were primarily written by AIs.” That’s the whole problem! And as my colleague Jeremiah Johnson recently observed with respect to Cambridge’s Arday scandal, a community being unwilling to call out fraud if it’s perpetuated by people of color is not an anti-racist tendency; it is ultimately quite racist. 2 Many non-Pangram detectors don’t work, but many possible airplane designs also don’t work, and no one considers this a general argument against aviation; the thing that matters is whether any detection works. 3 The phrase “empires have always loved” mysteriously became all the rage in the last few years. See here, here, here, here and here. Before 2025, the only use of that phrase I have been able to find is a single Tweet. The logic of the sentence, too, is incoherent in an AI-characteristic way. “...sounds like paperwork, until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork”? Does remembering that make it sound less like paperwork? It’s a craft-ful sentence, but what is it actually saying??
Bosses are rolling out policies trying to stop the AI slop
Fed up with bloated, confusing internal documents, companies are issuing new rules for when employees should — and shouldn't — use AI.
Tulane Drops Disappointing Game to Duke to Open Season
The Green Wave only mustered a late field goal in the sloppy 17-3 loss.
From ‘slop’ to prime time: how AI dramas are shaking up China’s TV industry
Fully AI-generated, 30-episode Journey to the West series debuts, as shifting production economics transform the industry.
President Trump puts Colorado farmers and ranchers first
By Brooke L. Rollins Ever since Colorado was admitted to the union 150 years ago this month, farmers and ranchers across the state have kept our nation’s food supply secure and our freedom alive. From cattle ranchers on the eastern plains to specialty crop producers on the Western Slope, Colorado is home to more than 36,000 farms spread across more than 30 million acres. Last week, I saw the tremendous effect of agriculture in the Centennial State firsthand as, along with U.S. […]
How Deion Sanders and Colorado overcame sloppy play to eke out crucial win over Georgia Tech
Colorado Sues EarnIn For “Immoral, Unethical, Oppressive and Unscrupulous” Business Practices
Hey all, Jason here. When this hits your inbox, I should be en route to the airport — not to go anywhere myself, just to pick up my better half. I must admit, it’s been strange to be home alone (well, with two dogs) for two weeks! Really lets me “optimize” to spending more time on reading/writing/working, whether that’s healthy or not! Looking forward to getting back into a (somewhat) more balance routine. Subscribe or Support by Upgrading Compare Notes With the People Who Built Modern Fintech Partner content: Remitly CEO Sebastian Gunningham. Increase founder Darragh Buckley. Linda Du, Co-founder & President at Valon. They’ll unpack the decisions behind building and scaling major financial products: what they got right, what broke, what they would do differently, and how AI and new infrastructure are changing the operator playbook. Most events tell you where fintech is going. NerdCon puts the people who built the present in the room and asks them what comes next. Expect an operator-led conversation grounded in real products, real trade-offs and lessons earned the hard way. Fintech Business Weekly readers save 20% on Regular tickets with code FBW20 before standard pricing ends September 11. Meet the Builders Things To Know & Other Good Reads Advent and Stripe Abandon $50 Billion Pursuit of PayPal (Bloomberg) Trump Family’s New Crypto Bank Is Backed by Abu Dhabi Sheikh (Wall Street Journal) The multiplying risks of financing data centres (FT) Let the Bond Market Speak (Wall Street Journal) Did we waste a crisis? Modest proposals to reform deposit insurance. (Fintech Takes Banking) Untangling Guggenheim: How Private Credit Built Its Own Universe (Net Interest) The Hater’s Guide To Circular Financing — Part One (Ed Zitron) Fiat Ventures Rebrands to FGV Capital, Announces $35M Oversubscribed Fund II (BusinessWire) Socure Announces Strategic Growth Investment at $5.2B Valuation and Acquires Agentic Operations Platform Fravity (Socure) Listen: When Consumer Protection Disclosures Work Too Well (Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast) Colorado Sues EarnIn For “Immoral, Unethical, Oppressive and Unscrupulous” Business Practices When Andreessen Horowitz led EarnIn’s $39 million Series B in 2017, Alex Rampell, a partner at the storied venture capital firm, described EarnIn’s small-dollar advance product as “free,” relying on “entirely on voluntary contributions instead of fees.” Rampell favorably compared EarnIn’s approach to typical payday loans, writing, “Payday loans historically have had the potential to be a slippery slope for consumers into financial distress: opaque systems and steep fees that are hard to repay and set individuals back further than where they started. For many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, that kind of slide into debt can be extremely difficult to recover from.” But EarnIn’s product — which, the company says, isn’t a “loan,” legally speaking — ends up being anything but free for most users. While it is technically possible to take a no-fee advance from the company, most users incur “Lightning Speed” (instant funding) fees and/or ostensibly optional tips that combined can equate to annualized percent rates that can reach over 1,000%. With an average term of 9.77 days, even fees and tips that are small on an absolute dollar basis are equivalent to high APRs on an annualized basis. A lawsuit filed last week by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser against EarnIn describes the company and its product and business practices quite differently than Andreessen’s Rampell; “EarnIn’s business practices are unfair because they are immoral, unethical, oppressive and unscrupulous,” the complaint, filed in District Court in Denver, Colorado, says. EarnIn’s marquee product, Cash Out, isn’t a loan, the company says, as Cash Out is not “[f]orward [l]ooking” because “[t]he money is transferred based on earnings to date,” does not carry a mandatory fee to access funds, and is “non-recourse,” meaning EarnIn cannot pursue recovery from users who don’t repay advanced funds. EarnIn is sometimes referred to as an “Earned Wage Advance” service. Though, unlike some others in the broader category, EarnIn does not integrate with employers’ payroll or time and attendance systems. Rather, EarnIn attempts to verify a user’s income and employment, by examining direct deposit transaction data in their linked external bank account, by using GPS location and Bluetooth data to estimate a user’s time spent at work, if they work in a fixed location, and/or by having a user provided a work email address. While repayment is theoretically optional, as EarnIn would have no recourse, such as reporting non-payment to the credit bureaus or a collections agency, this is anything but clear to users of the EarnIn app, Colorado’s complaint argues. During the process of taking a Cash Out, users must agree to a preauthorized debit of the amount advanced, plus any expedited funding fee and/or tips. Though users technically can revoke this ACH authorization, the fact that they have this right isn’t presented to users during the Cash Out process, but rather is included in linked terms and conditions few users are likely to actually read. And users who do wish to revoke their ACH authorization must do so three or more days before the scheduled transaction date by emailing EarnIn’s customer support. Similarly, EarnIn’s marketing claims that it carries “no interest” and “no mandatory fees” is technically true, but is not the reality for many of the app’s users, the Colorado complaint argues. Further, EarnIn has extensively marketed to users the ability to “access your pay today,” to get “instant” funds, and to get funds “the same day you work” — when, in reality, this speed of access was only possible by paying the additional, undisclosed Lightning Speed fee. The Colorado complaint highlights this contradiction specifically, noting: EarnIn tells consumers that they can ‘Make any day payday with EarnIn’ and that there no ‘hidden’ or ‘mandatory fees.’ For a consumer to access their pay on the same day requested, they would have to pay the Lightning Speed fee. In the fine print of the advertisement EarnIn discloses that ‘[f]ees apply to use Lightning Speed,’ a direct contradiction to the larger text of the advertisement, and a fact that would not be immediately understood by a consumer as ‘Lightning Speed’ is not defined nor explained. Like other small-dollar lending services, rather than explicitly charge interest, EarnIn collects a markup on the optional Lighting Speed fee, which, given the nature of the transactions, many users opt for, as well as offering users the option to leave “tips.” EarnIn leverages either Real-Time Payments (RTP) rails or push-to-card via debit rails if a user opts for the optional Lightning Speed. But while these capabilities cost EarnIn, on average, $0.075 or $0.20 per transaction, respectively, EarnIn charges users significantly more. Initially, EarnIn charged as little as $1.99 for Cash Outs up to $24. But EarnIn has hiked these fees multiple times, and now charges $4.99 for Cash Outs up to $75 and $6.99 for those over $75. According to the Colorado complaint, EarnIn leverages “dark patterns” to manipulate users and to make it more difficult to avoid tipping. Examples of these “road blocks” highlighted in the complaint include: As of 2023, in the EarnIn app, a consumer attempting to get a loan under the default settings had to make at least eighteen separate taps to complete the transaction and reduce the tip to $0. There is an alternative method to leave a $0 tip, via the “Custom tip” feature, but EarnIn made this option difficult to access by visually deemphasizing it and positioning it near devices’ “home” button. Using language and imagery such as “Tip to pay it forward,” “Your generosity supports the service + helps,” “Your tips make a difference,” and “[t]he APR for this cash out is 0%. Your tips help support us.” While Lightning Speed and tipping are, in theory, both optional, in practice, users nearly always ended up paying something. According to the Colorado suit, users were charged either a tip or an expedite fee for more than 92% of transactions, with an average APR of nearly 388%. And, although the advances are “non-recourse,” EarnIn successfully collects on nearly all transactions — 99.18%, according to the complaint, which, Colorado argues, “demonstrat[es] that EarnIn’s advances function as high cost loans, not voluntary payments.” The share of EarnIn users incurring fees — despite the product being marketed as 0% APR — is hard to reconcile with Andreessen investor Rampell’s favorable description of EarnIn vs. “opaque systems and steep fees” associated with payday loans, which, Rampell says, can be “extremely difficult” for borrowers to extricate themselves from. According to Colorado’s suit, EarnIn’s Cash Out product “trapped many consumers in extreme cycles of high-cost reborrowing.” The suit gives an example of one consumer in the state, who took out a whopping 1,151 loans, paying a total of $4,038.50 in Lightning Speed expedited funding fees on loans that averaged the equivalent of 1,421% APR. Another Colorado user, the suit says, took out 1,033 loans, paying $8,561.22 in tips and fees at an average APR of 1,539% . These types of usage patterns demonstrate “the severe and repeated financial harm caused by EarnIn’s illegal lending model,” the Colorado complaint argues. In aggregate, from January 2023 through July 2025, EarnIn extended 3.1 million loans to 56,778 users in Colorado — an average of nearly 55 transactions per person during the time period. EarnIn lent more than $300 million and collected more than $16 million from Colorado users in Lightning Speed fees and in tips. Ultimately, the Colorado complaint argues that “EarnIn’s Cash Outs are loans under Colorado law, and EarnIn’s contention that its product is not a loan based on its disclaimer of any legal repayment obligation lacks any real-world significance given how the Cash Out transactions actually operate in practice.” Colorado further argues that “EarnIn was not working with companies here in providing consumers with funds but acted as a third-party lender and charged illegally high rates, used deceptive design strategies to extract some charges, and trapped consumers in repeat borrowing. Colorado will continue to stand up for consumers and hold companies accountable when they violate our credit laws or attempt to evade them through misleading practices.” Colorado’s suit alleges EarnIn assesses finance charge in excess of that permitted by Colorado law, that EarnIn failed to make legally required disclosures to Colorado borrowers, that EarnIn made supervised loans to consumers without obtaining the requisite license, that EarnIn violated the state’s Deferred Deposit Loan Act, that EarnIn engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices, and that EarnIn made false or misleading statements concerning price. The suit seeks a court order enjoining EarnIn from violating relevant Colorado laws, for EarnIn to refund amounts charged in excess of state law, fees, costs, and penalties, and other relief the court deems to be just. Fintech Business Weekly is made possible by the generous support of paying subscribers — bringing you independent analysis of banking, fintech, and crypto without fear or favor. You can support my work by becoming a paying subscriber if you aren’t already. Paying subscribers enjoy: access to the entire archive of nearly six years of newsletters extended versions of the weekly newsletter, with additional content and analysis and (for founding member tier) quarterly personal 1:1 fintech Q&A / strategy calls with me, tapping into my unparalleled knowledge of the intersection of banking and fintech and experience working in the sector, including helping to launch Goldman Sachs’ retail bank Marcus Support Fintech Business Weekly You can also support Fintech Business Weekly by sponsoring a newsletter or podcast, putting you in front of 93,000+ of the most influential decision makers in banking, fintech, and crypto. Learn more about sponsor opportunities or request a media kit by dropping me an email. Q2 Quarterly Banking Profile: Five Quick Takeaways The FDIC released its quarterly banking profile, which is always worth a read, for the second quarter. The profile provides an aggregate snapshot about the overall health of the 4,238 institutions whose deposits are insured by the FDIC, who, collectively, hold more than $26 trillion in assets and saw a total net income of more than $90 billion in the second quarter. Net income was up 12% vs. Q1 2026, with lower provisions and realized gains on securities helping to drive the improvement, somewhat offset by increases in non-interest expense and applicable income taxes. Overall net interest margin was basically flat quarter over quarter (up 1 basis point vs. Q1 2026), though community banks saw NIM grow by 10 basis points, to 3.81%. Unsurprisingly, given that interest rates haven’t changed, unrealized losses on securities changed little, edging up slightly to $326.7 billion vs. $325.1 billion in Q1 2026. Aggregate credit quality has remained benign, with asset quality actually improving slightly in Q2. Overall, institutions reported a 9 basis point decline in their past-due and non-accrual rate, to 1.44%. Net charge off rate also declined by 2 basis points, to 0.57%. And finally, the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund stands at $161.1 billion, making the DIF reserve ratio 1.48% — above the statutory minimum of 1.35%, but still below the designated target reserve ratio of 2%. [Paid Subscriber Exclusive] Nissan Withdraws ILC App, State Associations Plan BankChain Alliance, FDIC Defines “Unsafe or Unsound Practice” For First Time Automaker Nissan withdrew its application to charter a Utah industrial loan company and its corresponding application to the FDIC for deposit insurance last week, on August 19th. Nissan’s application had been outstanding for more than a year, as it originally applied in June 2025. Recent applications to the OCC to form national banks have been decisioned, one way or the other, substantially more quickly than has historically been the case.
Xero Adds AI, Google Targets Law Firms And Claude Beats ChatGPT: 5 Small Business Tech Stories
Xero adds AI tools, Google expands Gemini for law firms, LinkedIn fights AI slop, Goldman warns of AI risks, and Claude tops user satisfaction.
Menus are getting AI-sloppified, and the images are terrifying
Horrifying Reubens and nauseating circle shrimp are hot new menu items.
First Leak of Nvidia's DLSS 5 Apparently Makes Games Look and Run Worse
Mods using an early version of Nvidia’s AI-slop-ified visuals still ignores artistic intent and cuts performance in half.
Are You a 'Meat Proxy'? The Rise of Copy-Pasting AI Responses Without Thinking
"AI slop" now has a friend. "Meat proxy" is a new way to describe too much reliance on AI content.
September 2026 PS Plus Monthly Games Include 'GTA For Kids'
More colorful friendslop is coming to PlayStaton's subscription service
Here Are The Opening Night Live Games You Can Ignore Because Of GenAI Slop
Some were already known to feature genAI, but a lot of them are new
Northern Ireland artist and business backlash against AI slop
As artificial intelligence becomes part of our everyday lives, there are some railing against cheaply produced material they say is empty and puts real artists' jobs at risk.
Post-Supercup Reactions: Sloppy, With Hints of Promise
The result wasn’t what we wanted, but there’s reason to be hopeful for the season.