Since at least 2023, the internet has been quietly colonized by a new kind of noise — algorithmically generated content so abundant and so hollow that it has finally earned its own name: AI slop. Search interest in the term has grown 5000 percent in a single year, suggesting that humanity has not so much discovered a new problem as finally found language for one it has been living inside. The tools that produce this content were designed for compliance, not discernment, and compliance at scale, it turns out, looks a great deal like infestation.