Cybercriminals Are Complaining About AI Slop Flooding Their Forums

A striking development has emerged in artificial intelligence. Matt BurgessSecurityMay 6, 2026 11:49 AMCybercriminals Are Complaining About AI Slop Flooding Their ForumsIt's not just you. Hackers and other cybercriminals are complaining about “AI shit” flooding platforms where they discuss cyberattacks and other illegal activity. Photo-Illustration: Jobanny Cabrera; Getty Images Save this story Save this storyThe complaint sounds familiar.

“I’m disappointed that you are working to incorporate AI garbage into the site,” one annoyed person, posting anonymously, said in an online message. “No-one is asking for this—we want you to improve the site, stop charging for new features. ”Only, this is not a regular internet user moaning about AI being forced into their favorite app.

Technical Details

Instead, they are complaining about a cybercrime forum’s plans to introduce more generative AI. Like millions of others, scammers, grifters, and low-level hackers are getting annoyed about AI encroaching into their lives and the rise of low-quality AI slop being posted in their online communities. “People don’t like it,” says Ben Collier, a security researcher and senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.

As part of a recent study into how low-level cybercriminals are using AI, Collier and fellow researchers spotted an increasing pushback over the use of generative AI in underground cybercrime forums and hacking groups. During the generative AI boom and hype cycles of the past couple of years, some people posting on hacking forums have moved from being positive about how AI can help hacking to a greater skepticism about the technology, according to the study, which also involved researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Strathclyde. The researchers analyzed 97,895 AI-related conversations on cybercrime forums since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022 until the end of last year.

They found complaints about people dumping “bullet-pointed explainers” of basic cybersecurity concepts, moaning about the number of low quality posts, and concerns about Google’s AI search overviews driving down the number of visitors to the forums. For decades cybercrime message boards and marketplaces, often Russian in origin, have allowed scammers to do business together. They are places where stolen data can be traded, hacking jobs are advertised, and fraudsters shitpost about their rivals.

Industry Implications

While scammers often try to scam each other, the forums also have a sense of community. For example, users build up reputations for being reliable, and forum owners hold writing competitions. “These are essentially social spaces.

They really hate other people using on the forums,” Collier says. He says the social dynamic of the groups can be messed up by potential cybercriminals trying to gain a better reputation by posting AI-generated hacking explainers. “I think a lot of them are a bit ambivalent about AI because it undermines their claim to be a skilled person.

This advance offers important signals about the future of the sector, and the tech world is watching closely.