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Within a week of each other, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Jaana Dogan, a Principal Engineer working on Google\u2019s Gemini API, posted comments about AI criticism that shared a theme. Both redirected attention away from whether AI output is \u201cgood\u201d or \u201cbad\u201d and toward how people are reacting to the technology.<\/p>
Nadella published \u201cLooking Ahead to 2026\u201d on his personal blog, writing that the industry needs to \u201cget beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication.\u201d<\/p>
Days later, Dogan posted on X that \u201cpeople are only anti new tech when they are burned out from trying new tech.\u201d<\/p>
The timing coincides with Merriam-Webster naming \u201cslop\u201d its Word of the Year. For publishers, these statements can land less like reassurance and more like a request to stop focusing on quality.<\/p>
Nadella\u2019s post argues that the conversation should move past the \u201cslop\u201d label and focus on how AI fits into human life and work. He characterizes AI as \u201ccognitive amplifier tools\u201d and believes that 2026 is the year in which AI must \u201cprove its value in the real world.\u201d<\/p>
He writes: \u201cWe need to get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication,\u201d and calls for \u201ca new equilibrium\u201d that accounts for humans having these tools. In the same section, he also calls it \u201cthe product design question we need to debate and answer,\u201d which makes the point less about ending debate and more about steering it toward product integration and outcomes.<\/p>
Dogan\u2019s post framed anti-AI sentiment as burnout from trying new technology. The line was blunt: \u201cPeople are only anti new tech when they are burned out from trying new tech. It\u2019s understandable.\u201d<\/p>
People are only anti new tech when they are burned out from trying new tech. It\u2019s understandable.<\/p>