AI;DR: A New Reflex in the Face of AI Slop?
The expression AI;DR has appeared on social media, derived from the famous TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read). But unlike its predecessor, which expresses weariness with texts that are too long, AI;DR (Artificial Intelligence; Didn’t Read) focuses on the artificial provenance of the content itself.
TL;DR: A Utilitarian Usage
For my part, I use TL;DR in conversations or emails when a document becomes too long. I place it at the beginning of the message to introduce a paragraph summarizing the document. The recipient then knows whether they need to read further.
The Difference with AI;DR
AI;DR is different. It’s an explicit rejection, a way to refuse to engage with a text because it seems not only too long but also artificial. It has become a form of passive resistance against the proliferation of automatically generated content, these smooth, impersonal texts that now fill our feeds.
I recently spoke with a developer who had submitted a long documentation when it was meant to quickly explain how to use a tool. The response seemed to me justified, even obvious: I told him that the document seemed AI-generated, and that it was too long to read as-is.
I think that from now on, I will answer directly AI;DR in such situations :-)