How 'AI Slop' became perfect 2025 Word of the Year for our anxious era: Know every detail here

"AI slop" is the term for the all-too-common feeling that generative AI results don't meet your expectations, describing the disappointing, low-quality output itself.

Macquarie Dictionary’ which is widely recognized as a standard reference on Australian English, has announced “AI slop” as the Word of the Year 2025.

The internet landscape in 2025 is saturated with “AI slop”—from bizarre images to AI-generated political content—a phenomenon that is making users more passive and disengaged.

What does “AI slop” mean?

“AI slop” in its simplest form is defined as “low-quality content by generative AI, often containing errors, and not requested by the user.”

"AI slop" is an advanced form of internet spam and appears to be spot on for the selection of 2025 Word of the Year—further proven by its people’s choice vote on top of the decision made by the committee of word experts.

“We understand now in 2025 what we mean by slop—AI-generated slop, which lacks meaningful content or use,” the committee said in a statement while making the announcement.

“While in recent years we’ve learned to become search engineers to find meaningful information, we now need to become prompt engineers in order to wade through the AI slop.”

It emphasized its significance, stating, “Slop in this sense will be a robust addition to English for years to come.”

“The question is, are the people ingesting and regurgitating this content soon to be called AI sloppers?” the committee added.

“AI slop” is the ideal Word of the Year for a period defined by anxiety over the meaningless, low-quality AI content that is reshaping how we analyze information online.

Macquarie’s pick joins the other 2025 Words of the Year, which are:

• “6-7,” the viral TikTok slang by Dictionary.com
• “vibe coding” by Collins Dictionary
• “Parasocial” by Cambridge Dictionary

These words collectively reflect growing anxieties about AI’s expanding role—from the reproduction of copyrighted content and the threat to cognitive skills to the pervasive harm of social media.