Yes. At times the "new" section looks like one of those "article" websites where spammers and "internet marketers" just throw a load of pasted articles up. Please also keep in mind that some articles will be "respun" to evade Googles duplicate content penalties so a bot might classify them as original by accident. Anyone familiar with Warrior Forum will have heard of article spinner software, and even Fiverr gigs where people will respin content to make it appear original.
Ultimately I don't think we should rely solely on automated processes to vet the content. The Steemit system should be refined to encourage "spam vigilance" by all users.
There should be so much more to Steemit than entertaining or informative articles. I look forward to the emergence of communities of hobbyists, ideologues, educators, hackers, philanthropists, etc. Users within these communities will build relationships, create "thought leaders", and spam will be weeded out more efficiently.