Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Wants Us to Move Past AI ‘Slop’
As Nadella urges acceptance of AI, Adam Mosseri says the Instagram feed is already “dead” due to synthetic content.
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[Image source: Chetan Jha/MITSMR Middle East]
In 2015, Merriam-Webster called “Slop” the word of the year. Defined as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence” the choice captured the mood of a year. Throughout 2025, we witnessed uncanny AI-generated advertisements, erosion of search quality, and a flood of AI-made music, literature and all forms of art. The term resonated widely, but not everyone welcomed the jab it seemed to take at generative AI.
Among the critics is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who used a year-end post to argue that it was time to move past the “slop versus sophistication” debate.
Nadella suggested that AI should be accepted as a “new equilibrium” in human development, insisting that the focus should now be on outcomes rather than aesthetics or cultural discomfort.
He framed the current moment as one where humanity understands enough about scaling AI models and managing their “jagged edges” to finally extract real-world value.
The rhetoric, heavy with corporate optimism, landed awkwardly. Throughout December, Microsoft has faced frustration from customers over AI features being bundled into products with little choice. Roughly a billion PCs were still running Windows 10, despite many being eligible for an upgrade to the AI-integrated Windows 11—suggesting that a significant share of users are actively avoiding AI integration.
Just days later, a parallel conversation emerged where Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, declared that the traditional Instagram feed was effectively “dead.” Users, he said, had stopped sharing personal moments publicly years ago, shifting instead to private messages filled with casual, unfiltered photos. The rise of AI, Mosseri argued, has only accelerated this change. With tools like Midjourney and Sora, polished imagery is easy to mass-produce but increasingly dull to consume.
“Flattering imagery is cheap,” Mosseri said, noting that feeds are now saturated with synthetic content. What audiences crave instead is material that feels unmistakably human. Yet even as he made that case, Instagram’s parent company, Meta, continued to roll out AI features, from chatbot creation tools to experiments with AI-generated influencers.
