I’ve just spent the last 3 weeks in China.

Feel like I’ve been drowning in AI slop!

AI-generated meeting notes, proposals, and white papers have flooded my WeChat.

And based on what people told me, the Chinese AI models are still nowhere near Claude in terms of quality of output.

As one AI entrepreneur put it:

“After speaking to Claude, when you talk to a Chinese AI, it feels like you’re talking to a child”

“和Claude沟通了以后，和中国AI模型说话就像是跟小孩说话一样”

So it seems anyone who is anyone in AI in China, is using Claude, even thought technically it shouldn’t be possible..

And Chinese “AI slop”, is, well, even sloppier than the English equivalent.

Which got me thinking:

• How do you say “AI slop” in Chinese?

I’ve found three candidates. And as far as I can tell, there’s no settled answer yet.

Which one do you prefer?

Option 1: “AI rubbish” (AI垃圾 AI lā jī)

This is the most common rendering, and the title of the Chinese Wikipedia entry.

An alternative is “AI废文” - which can also be translated as “AI rubbish”.

The problem is, “rubbish” is what Chinese speakers call everything from spam to bad football teams. So I’m not happy with this translation.

Option 2: “AI swill” (AI泔水 AI gān shuǐ)

This is the most faithful translation. “Slop” originally meant pig swill, and 泔水 is exactly that.

Taiwan media use a variant: “leftover swill” (餿水 sōu shuǐ), which means spoiled food waste.

This seems like a good candidate, but a bit too niche for me.

Option 3: “AI water-talk” (AI水话 AI shuǐ huà)

I spotted this in a WeChat group chat I am in. It seems to be the internet slang option.

In Chinese, “water” (水 shuǐ) as an adjective which means “thin”, “diluted”, padded out, or even “fake”.

For example: A low-effort article is “very watery” (很水). Flooding an online forum with low quality content is “pouring water” (灌水 guàn shuǐ). And a bloated TV drama is “injected with water” (注水 zhù shuǐ).

So, in this version, “AI slop” is “AI水话”

And it’s this one which is my favourite!

What’s your favourite way to say “AI slop” in Chinese?