‘Slop’ named 2025’s word of the year in response to AI content

We’ve all been exposed to copious amounts of AI-generated content throughout the year. Much of it is low-quality, riddled with errors, or carrying an unpleasantly AI sheen that is an affront to life itself. Appropriately, Merriam-Webster’s 2025 word of the year is “slop”, the simple catch-all term used to describe much of AI’s output.

Per Merriam-Webster’s official definition, slop refers to “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence”. Whether in written, image, or video form, it’s an apt descriptor for anything published online with minimal effort.

Last month, Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary specifically named “AI slop” its 2025 word of the year. Recognised locally and abroad, it captures a rising sentiment surrounding the proliferation of AI-generated content in all aspects ot digital life. It makes for an appropriate follow-up to Macquarie’s 2024 word of the year: enshittification, the reduction of a product’s quality over time.

Slop tends to be characterised by how obviously fake or low-quality a piece of content is. At least, for those familiar enough to spot it online. However, experts warn that AI-generated content can also be a tool for disinformation, capable of tricking people who quickly scroll by.

Alarmingly, some research claims that more than half of the written content online has been generated by AI. A growing number of YouTube channels with large followings specialise in mass-producing videos made using generative AI.

In response, Merriam-Webster’s editors say that the word ‘slop’ is meant to be “mocking” in tone. Instead of being fearful of AI, the aim is to disparage the content the technology produces at scale.

“The word sends a little message to AI: when it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you don’t seem too superintelligent.”

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