This past year has been a whirlwind of ups and downs, leaving many of us wondering how to sum it all up. However, the editors at Merriam-Webster have chosen a rather unexpected term as their 2025 Word of the Year: “slop.” This word, defined as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence,” has flooded our screens with everything from absurd videos to fake news that looks scarily realistic.
Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster’s president, described “slop” as an illustrative word that captures the fascination, annoyance, and ridiculousness of the transformative technology AI. Like slime, sludge, and muck, “slop” has a wet sound that you wouldn’t want to touch, seeping into every aspect of our lives. From its original meaning of “soft mud” in the 1700s to “food waste” in the 1800s, “slop” now encompasses anything of little or no value.
With the rise of AI video generators like Sora creating lifelike clips from text prompts, concerns about misinformation, deepfakes, and copyright issues have also grown. While these advancements in technology are impressive, the flood of AI-generated content on social media has raised red flags about the authenticity of what we see online.
On another note, AI is making waves in the app world as well. ChatGPT, a chatbot developed by OpenAI, was ranked as the number one most downloaded free iPhone app for 2025. This AI technology, released in November 2022, generates text, speech, and images in response to user prompts, delighting fans with its capabilities.
As we reflect on the past year and the impact of AI on our digital experiences, it’s clear that the influence of technology is only growing stronger, shaping the way we interact with content online. Amidst the sea of “slop” and AI innovations, the future of digital media is evolving rapidly, challenging us to adapt to a new era of information and entertainment.
Peace Nero is a writer and blogger who loves to explore different topics of self-development. She shares her personal experiences in order to help people discover their true purpose in life.