The Great AI Cleanup Has Begun
AI slop, private models, and tools that actually work.
We're in the messy middle of the AI revolution, and the cleanup crews are just starting to arrive.
The Dirty Secret of AI Code Is Creating a New Job Market
Startups are creating 'AI slop' at record speed, and now they're hiring developers to clean it up.
A YC startup recently hired a developer for one specific task: to clean up the mess left by their AI coding assistants. This is 'AI slop' – code that looks fine at a glance but is bloated, inefficient, and a nightmare to maintain. It's the digital equivalent of fast food, and it's creating a new form of technical debt at a terrifying speed.
The uncomfortable truth is that while AI is great at generating boilerplate, it's terrible at context and long-term architectural thinking. This isn't a sign that developer jobs are disappearing. It signals a shift in what's valuable – moving from pure code generation to sophisticated code review, refactoring, and the ability to expertly guide and correct AI outputs. The job is evolving from builder to architect and quality controller.
This is a massive opportunity for developers who can do more than just prompt an AI. Specialising in 'AI slop cleanup' is becoming a viable and lucrative niche. The most valuable engineers will be the ones who can act as the human quality gate, wielding AI as a tool for acceleration, not as a replacement for sound judgement.
The AI Stays On Your Machine
The latest wave of tools proves you don't need the cloud for everything, with a renewed focus on local processing and privacy.
DiffSense: AI git commits that run on your Mac, not in the cloud
This is the ultimate developer convenience without the privacy trade-off. It keeps your code on your machine, solving a real pain point while respecting the most important rule: your code is yours.
ScreenREC: The screen recorder that just works, no install required
ScreenREC solves a simple problem perfectly. By staying in the browser and keeping recordings local, it rejects the bloat and surveillance of typical desktop software, proving that less really is more.
Dvina: A private AI platform that connects to all your apps
This aims to be the secure 'brain' for an entire business. It's a bet that companies want to solve data silo problems without creating a massive data leakage nightmare in the process.
Your New AI Co-Pilots
AI is moving beyond code and into specialised roles, acting as a co-pilot for marketers, founders, and investors.
Buzz: Chat with your Meta Ads data to get instant answers
This isn't about replacing marketers; it's about giving them superpowers. It turns chaotic ad data into a simple conversation, making high-level analytics accessible without needing a data science degree to understand it.
Press Pitch: An AI that writes press pitches for your launch
This tool levels the playing field for indie makers and early-stage founders. It automates a critical task that was previously a painful mix of art, science, and expensive agencies.
FinSight AI: Get 'buy, sell, or hold' stock advice from an AI
Democratising financial analysis is a powerful idea. The real test isn't the AI, but whether its 'buy, sell, or hold' advice is genuinely sound in a world where markets are famously unpredictable.
Quick hits
Aureyl: Stop manifesting a stranger's life
An AI tool that puts your actual face on your vision board to reprogramme your subconscious for success.
Reddit Summarizer: The cheat code for Reddit is finally here
A Chrome extension that uses AI to summarise massive Reddit threads so you can get the insights without the endless scrolling.
PurrrrrFocus Pomodoro: Your new feline focus partner
A gamified Pomodoro timer with cat companions to make deep work feel less like a chore and more like a game.
My takeaway
The most valuable skill is no longer creating the first draft, but perfecting the final one.
AI generates endless first drafts of code, marketing copy, and business strategy, flooding the world with mediocrity. This makes the human ability to refine, edit, and add true context more critical than ever. We're shifting from a world that values creation to one that values curation and quality control.
The bottleneck is no longer production; it's validation. This creates an opportunity for anyone who can separate the signal from the AI-generated noise. The real leverage is in becoming the final, human-led quality gate before anything goes live.
How are you adapting your own skills to become the quality layer, not just another generator?
Drop me a reply. Till next time, this is Louis, and you are reading Louis.log().