Overview
Merriam-Webster, America’s largest dictionary publisher, announced on December 15 that “slop” has been selected as the 2025 Word of the Year. The term refers to low-quality digital content mass-produced by artificial intelligence.
Definition of “Slop”
Merriam-Webster defines “slop” as:
“Digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence”
Background of the Selection
Flood of AI Content
2025 has been a year when AI video generation tools like OpenAI’s Sora and Google Gemini’s Veo became widespread, leading to a surge in AI-generated content across the internet.
Merriam-Webster explained in a blog post:
“In 2025, amid all the talk about AI threats, slop set a tone that’s less fearful, more mocking. Slop oozes into everything.”
Rise of the “Slop Economy”
The phenomenon of mass-produced AI content created for advertising revenue, dubbed the “slop economy,” has emerged. This includes:
- Absurd videos: AI-generated videos with unrealistic content
- Off-kilter advertising images: AI-generated product images that feel unnatural
- Cheesy propaganda: AI content mass-produced for political purposes
- Fake news that looks pretty real: AI-generated articles that appear authentic but are false
A Warning to the AI Industry
Questions About Human Creativity
Merriam-Webster stated about the selection: “The word sends a little message to AI: when it comes to replacing human creativity, sometimes you don’t seem too superintelligent.”
Quality vs. Quantity Debate
The surge in AI-generated content has accelerated discussions about the balance between “quality” and “quantity” in digital spaces. While technology now enables mass content generation, there’s growing recognition that this doesn’t necessarily mean valuable content.
Other Candidate Words
Other candidates for 2025 included:
- Vibe coding: A “feel-based” programming approach using AI
- AI anxiety: Social anxiety about AI technology
- Prompt engineering: Methods for giving effective instructions to AI
The selection of “slop” over these indicates that societal concerns about AI-generated content were most prominent.
Future Implications
The selection of “slop” as Word of the Year suggests that alongside AI technological advancement, critical social perspectives on its use have also matured. AI companies are entering an era where they will be held responsible not only for technological progress but also for quality control of generated content.