In a move that perfectly captures a defining digital trend of our times, Merriam-Webster has officially declared "slop" as its 2025 Word of the Year. The term, now widely used online, describes the deluge of creepy, zany, and demonstrably fake content, a phenomenon supercharged by the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence.
From Mud to Digital Muck: The Evolution of 'Slop'
Greg Barlow, the president of Merriam-Webster, announced the selection on Monday, calling it an "illustrative word." He noted that it is intrinsically linked to the transformative technology of AI, something people find simultaneously fascinating, annoying, and a bit ridiculous. The word's journey to this modern definition is a long one. It was first used in the 1700s to refer to soft mud. Over time, its meaning broadened to signify anything of little value.
Today, its definition has been formally expanded to mean "digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence." Barlow elaborated that this encompasses everything from absurd videos and weird advertising images to cheesy propaganda, convincing fake news, and junky AI-written digital books.
The AI Tools and Their Real-World Consequences
While AI video and image generators have amazed users with their ability to create realistic clips from simple text prompts, their proliferation has serious downsides. Social media platforms are now flooded with such content, including manipulated clips of celebrities and deceased public figures. This has raised significant alarms about misinformation, deepfakes, and copyright infringement.
Although such deceptive content has existed online for years, the tools to create it are now far more accessible and are being leveraged for political purposes. A striking example cited involved US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Last month, he posted a manipulated image of the cartoon turtle from the Canadian animated show "Franklin"—a program that teaches kindness and empathy—reimagined as a grenade-wielding fighter to defend US military actions in Venezuela.
Selecting the Word That Defines an Era
The process for choosing the Word of the Year involves Merriam-Webster's editors reviewing data on which words have seen a significant spike in searches and general usage. They then reach a consensus on which term best reflects the spirit and events of the year. "We like to think that we are a mirror for people," Barlow stated, explaining their methodology.
The selection of "slop" acts as that mirror, clearly reflecting a global concern. It evokes the unpleasant imagery of mud-caked pigs crowding a trough or a bucket of fetid stew, a fitting metaphor for the often overwhelming and low-quality AI-generated material clogging our digital feeds. This official recognition underscores the profound cultural and societal impact artificial intelligence is having on information creation and consumption worldwide.
