Every year, the editors of the American dictionary Merriam-Webster select one word from those most frequently looked up online that best encapsulates the themes and debates of the year. Which word will be the Word of the Year 2025? Slop, as in AI slop.
The word itself is ancient, originally meaning mud, later used for food scraps given to pet pigs (pig slop), and then more broadly as worthless waste. The phenomenon recently designated by it (AI slop) is relatively new—the definition for this is "low-quality digital content produced, usually in large quantities, with the help of artificial intelligence."
This refers to the carelessly and quickly generated kitsch, whether it be images, videos, or texts, that we unfortunately encounter more and more often on the internet—and no longer just there. Often flawed and exaggerated, the soulless AI slop is no longer just pouring out of Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and the like; it has long since crept into commerce and marketing, business communication, and many other areas.
As ubiquitous as the content automatically produced at the push of a button (the word is actually appropriate here) is, it is apparently also unpopular—see Word of the Year...
Nevertheless, the prediction that we will be served buckets of AI slop in 2026 is probably not too bold. Only the whole thing won't be new anymore; people get used to almost everything.
;)
