Stop AI Slop: The Browser Extension Pushing Back Against an AI-Flooded Internet

As artificial intelligence–generated text, images and videos continue to saturate the internet, a new browser extension is attracting attention for taking an unusually uncompromising stand. Slop Evader, created by artist and researcher Tega Brain, filters online search results so users see only content published before 30 November 2022—the day ChatGPT was launched.

Its aim is simple but provocative: to restore a sense of trust by allowing users to browse an internet built almost entirely by humans. Brain says she developed the tool out of growing concern about how quickly generative AI has reshaped the online world. Speaking about the rising sense of uncertainty around what is genuine and what is synthetic, she describes a widespread unease that has accompanied the rise of AI-created media.

“This sowing of mistrust in our relationship with the media is a huge thing,” she says. Tools such as OpenAI’s Sora 2, which can generate highly realistic videos, she argues, blur the boundary between authentic content and fabrication to an unprecedented degree. Slop Evader, she explains, is designed as the simplest possible act of refusal: a way of opting out. “It intentionally freezes search results in a pre-AI era: only search before 2022.”

How Slop Evader Works

The extension operates by using Google’s Search API to filter results and currently supports pre-GPT archives for seven major platforms, including YouTube, Reddit, Stack Exchange, and Mumsnet. Restricting searches to older material allows users to navigate the web without the now-constant question of whether what they are viewing was produced by a human or a machine.

However, this curated browsing experience comes with significant limitations. Because the tool blocks all content created after 2022, it cannot surface anything current or time-sensitive—news reports, updated documentation, new discussions, or recently launched websites. Technology site 404 Media described the experience as both “refreshing and harrowing”: a nostalgic return to a familiar, human-built web, while simultaneously reminding users just how rapidly that world has disappeared.

Not a Full Solution

Brain is clear that Slop Evader is not intended as a comprehensive solution. She acknowledges its limitations and says support for additional sites is planned. A version powered by DuckDuckGo rather than Google is also being explored.

But she stresses that the extension’s purpose is less technical and more cultural. Slop Evader is designed to provoke debate about what kind of internet society want, and what is at risk as generative AI expands.

Her broader goal is to prompt pressure on major search engines to introduce new filters capable of identifying and hiding suspected AI-generated material by default. Some search engines have already moved tentatively in this direction. DuckDuckGo, for instance, recently introduced an option to filter out AI-generated images.

Cultural Pushback

Ultimately, Brain argues that resisting what she sees as a drift toward a dystopian, AI-saturated internet will require collective action: a combination of tools, user communities, and platforms that prioritise authenticity and transparency over convenience and speed. She believes Slop Evader highlights a growing desire among internet users for reliable, human-made information—something that was once taken for granted but is now increasingly rare.

The extension’s abrupt temporal boundary—everything before November 2022 is allowed, everything after is blocked—creates, she says, a stark reminder of how dramatically and how quickly the internet has changed.

And while Slop Evader may never replace mainstream search tools, Brain hopes it will force a conversation that many feel is long overdue: how to protect trust, credibility, and the value of human expression in an era when artificial intelligence can produce limitless amounts of convincing—if not always reliable—content.