No, that's a false equivalence.

> Everything else is just recycled slop.

No, not everything is slop. AI-slop is slop. The term was coined for a reason.

Everyone can ask the AI directly, unlike accessing journals. Journals are intermediaries because you don't have direct access to the source (or cannot conduct the experiment yourself).

Everyone has access to AI at the slop "let's generate blog posts and articles" level we're discussing here.

A better analogy than teachers is: I ask a teacher a random question, and then I tell it to you with almost no changes, with the same voice if the teacher (and you also have access to the same teacher). Why? What value do I add? You can ask the teacher directly. And doubly so because what I'm asking is not some flash of insight, it's random crap instead.