Slop Evader lets users freeze the internet in 2022 to escape AI-generated clutter

A growing backlash against generative AI has led to the creation of a new browser extension called Slop Evader.

The tool filters search results to show only content published before November 30, 2022, which was the day ChatGPT became publicly available.

The goal is to help users browse the web without encountering AI-generated content or synthetic media.

The extension works on Firefox and Chrome and uses Google search filters to limit results. Artist and researcher Tega Brain built it after noticing rising concern about the rapid spread of generative AI tools and the decline in trust online.

AI Content Everywhere

In only a few years, generative AI has flooded online spaces. What began as odd content in niche corners of Facebook and X has become routine.

Synthetic images, fabricated rental ads, questionable reviews, and AI-written articles now appear across search results, news websites, and social platforms.

Brain says the shift has changed how people relate to online information.

“This sowing of mistrust in our relationship with media is a huge thing, a huge effect of this synthetic media moment we’re in,” she told 404 Media.

She says tools like Sora 2 have disrupted people’s ability to determine what is real quickly.

The effect goes beyond entertainment or casual browsing. Brain argues that AI systems have increased mental workload in daily online tasks.

Searching for apartments, comparing products, or even scrolling image-based platforms now requires extra skepticism.

“I open up Pinterest and suddenly notice that half of my feed are these incredibly idealized faces of women that are clearly not real people,” she said. “It’s shoved into your face and into your feed, whether you searched for it or not.”

Slop Evader currently works across seven sites, including YouTube, Reddit, Stack Exchange, and parenting forum MumsNet.

The experience can feel refreshing because content appears more human, but it also limits access to anything current.

For example, users cannot find recent news or websites that launched after 2022.

That limitation is intentional. Brain says the point is not to permanently avoid AI content, but to encourage people to question how much synthetic information they accept.

“I’ve been thinking about ways to refuse it, and the simplest, dumbest way to do that is to only search before 2022,” she said.

She plans to add more supported sites and is developing a version that uses DuckDuckGo instead of Google.

DuckDuckGo recently added an option to filter out AI images during search, a move Brain sees as a step toward giving users more control.

A Push for Collective Action

Brain says Slop Evader is not a full solution, but a prompt for cultural resistance. “I don’t think browser add-ons are gonna save us,” she said. She believes meaningful change will require coordinated pressure rather than private frustration.

“It’s like with the climate debate, we’re not going to get out of this shitshow with individual actions alone,” she said.

For Brain, the larger question is how individual refusal can turn into collective pushback against an increasingly synthetic internet.

Slop Evader is not the only attempt to push back against AI-generated noise online. Recently, Kagi Search launched a feature called SlopStop, which allows users to report low-value or AI-generated content across articles, images, and videos.

The system then uses those reports to downrank or filter that content from search results.

While Slop Evader takes a time-capsule approach by limiting results to the pre-GPT era, SlopStop reflects a different strategy.

Instead of avoiding the modern web entirely, it tries to reshape it through community reporting and smarter filtering. The aim is to keep current search results usable, readable, and less dominated by synthetic or automated content.

As more tools emerge, the fight against AI slop is shifting from complaint to action, and for now, users are deciding which version of the internet they want to reclaim.