I pay for Kagi. What makes it not slop is that it only gives me an AI result when I explicitly ask for it. That’s their entire value proposition. Proper search and tooling with the user being explicitly in control of what to promote and what not to promote.
If slop were to apply to the whole of AI, then the adjective would be useless. For me at least, anything that made with the involvement of any trace of AI without disclosing it is slop. As soon as it is disclosed, it is not slop, however low the effort put in it.
Right now, effort is unquantifiable, but “made with/without AI” is quantifiable, and Kagi offers that as a point of data for me to filter on as a user.