Artificial intelligence, in particular, is playing an ever-growing role in determining the content you see online. This misconception is especially pronounced with new generative AI platforms, like OpenAI’s Sora and Google Gemini’s Veo. The term perfectly embodies many people’s realities of a digital space flooded with junk, cannibalistic, AI-created content.
It’s not just academics who are turning to “slop.” In fact, they go so far as to deem it simply a tidal wave of AI generated content that they claim overtakes the internet. This phenomenon has given birth to what is often referred to as the “slop economy.” In this new economy, businesses are succeeding by making and distributing this engaging, informative content. A study conducted in May found that nearly 75 percent of all new web content produced in the preceding month involved some form of AI, underscoring the prevalence of slop in today’s digital environment.
Merriam-Webster’s decision to name “slop” as their word of the year taps into a widespread anxiety about the provenance, originality, and overall authenticity of information being circulated online. AI technologies are advancing at a breakneck pace. The end result has been a huge multiplication of the content that can easily be characterized as slop. The name emphasizes the economic benefits reaped by in-demand content creators. They don’t hesitate to exploit the easily scalable production process of generating AI-informed content, regardless of accuracy.
“It’s part of a transformative technology, AI, and it’s something that people have found fascinating, annoying, and a little bit ridiculous.” – Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president
The rise in AI-generated content has prompted discussions surrounding its implications for communication and information dissemination. Merriam-Webster notes, “Like slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch. Slop oozes into everything.” This colorful characterization captures the depersonalizing and toxic experience such content creates and how it affects users’ interactions online.
Merriam-Webster’s announcement coincides with Collins Dictionary’s selection of “vibe coding” as its own word of the year, emphasizing a contrast between two distinct narratives surrounding language and technology. In Collins’ work, emotional expression gets translated through a digital interface. At the same time, Merriam-Webster raises red flags over considerations of content quality in an AI-based universe.