As AI-generated text, images, and videos continue to flood the internet, a new browser extension called Slop Evader is taking a radical approach to restoring trust in online information. The tool filters search results to show only content published before November 30, 2022, the day ChatGPT launched, ensuring users see only human-created material.
Slop Evader’s creator, artist, and researcher Tega Brain, says she developed the extension out of concern for how aggressively generative AI has reshaped the internet. Brian described the widespread unease around synthetic media and the loss of certainty about what is real online.
“This sowing of mistrust in our relationship with media is a huge thing,” she said, pointing to tools like Sora 2 that blur the boundary between genuine and artificial content. As the simplest form of refusal, she says, the extension intentionally freezes search results in a pre-AI era: “only search before 2022.”
The extension uses Google’s Search API to filter results and currently supports pre-GPT archives for seven major platforms, including YouTube, Reddit, Stack Exchange, and MumsNet. By restricting results to older content, users can browse without worrying whether what they see was produced by AI.
However, this comes at a cost. Slop Evader cannot retrieve anything current or time-sensitive, including websites created after 2022. The experience is both “refreshing and harrowing,” as 404 Media describes it, a nostalgic return to a human-built web that no longer exists.
Brain acknowledges the extension’s limitations and says more site support is planned. She also aims to release a version powered by DuckDuckGo instead of Google. But she emphasizes that Slop Evader is primarily meant to provoke discussion, not replace modern search tools.
The larger goal is cultural pushback. Brain hopes enough pressure could lead to new search filters that automatically hide suspected AI-generated content. DuckDuckGo has already taken a step in that direction, adding an option this year to filter out AI images.
Ultimately, Brain argues that resisting a dystopian, AI-saturated internet will require collective action: tools, communities, and platforms that prioritize authenticity over convenience.
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