Thinkslop

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 We define thinkslop in a Harvard Business Review article as 'the lazy, sloppy thinking that can be engendered by excessive use of AI'. 

There are several relevant, related terms floating around the internet right now: slop, AI slop, and workslop. But there is a crucial difference between those terms and what we mean by thinkslop. Those terms describe poor-quality content output. Thinkslop, as we conceive it, is not an output; it's a cognitive behaviour. It's the inclination and practice of resorting to AI before giving our brains the chance to solve the problem, find the right wording, generate the idea, etc.

Thinkslop had made a couple of appearances online towards the end of  2025. But the term was used in indiffernet ways.  Internet entrepreneur, Jason Calacanis, may have been the first to coin the phrase in September that year, in this podcast. 

The threat of technology has loomed large over human thinking before. We worried about books, cinema, calculators, and the spreadsheet. But AI is different and more potent. The recent wave of generative AI can burn into any, every shadow of human thought. There is no topic on which we can't get an instant view from an AI. And, thanks to the internet and smartphones, we have unbridled, 24/7 access to it.

Take brainstorming or generating ideas. This was the #1 use case in our 2024 AI in the Wild research, and remains high on the list in 2025 and 2026. In fact, in terms of raw generative AI query volumes, it has likely become an ingrained, assumed, invisible habit. It is natural to think of this use case as harmless: I have a problem. I ask AI to generate some ideas. I adapt some, I reject some, I add my own. It’s not 

the final output, just an input. Good, rapid, productive work, right?

It may be. But by going to the AI early on in the process, we deny ourselves the opportunity to reach into our own minds, imaginations, and memories to pull out what we really think and feel. We lose the chance to create it ourselves, to produce something personal and thereby feel a personal connection to it. It's a subtle, silent surrender of agency.

It's much like looking up the answers to a question or puzzle or riddle before you've had a go yourself. It robs you of the struggle where the actual thinking happens. As Bertrand Russell put it (admittedly about a different type of mental shortcut), it has "all the advantages of theft over honest toil."

It's difficult, but there are ways to guard against it. First, be aware of the trap. This article may have helped. Second, draw some boundaries, before you next use AI. Be clear on which uses of AI are beneficial to you, and which act as a crutch. Set personal rules. For example: I only use it to review my own initial drafts. I only use it when I have spent at least 10 minutes trying to solve the problem myself. I use it to summarize issues with my writing, not to produce replacement copy. I never copy and paste. And try not using AI to come up with those rules.

Protect your agency. Don’t succumb to thinkslop. Keep hold of your intention, your intellect, and your humanity.