Macquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic face
AI slop is here, it’s ubiquitous, it’s being used by the US president, Donald Trump, and now, it’s the word of the year.The Macquarie Dictionary dubbed the term the epitome of 2025 linguistics, with a committee of word experts saying the outcome embodies the word of the year’s general theme of reflecting “a major aspect of society or societal change throughout the year”.“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 announcing its decision.“While in recent years we’ve learnt to become search engineers to find meaningful information, we now need to become prompt engineers in order to wade through the AI slop.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 term was up against a shortlist of other cultural moments and terminology, including: Ozempic face (a condition resulting from the use of a semaglutide drug); blind box (a type of mystery box containing an unseen collectible); ate (and left no crumbs) (an expression used to indicate that someone has performed or executed something perfectly; and Roman Empire (a term for various events, interests or subjects, that one finds themselves frequently thinking about).Sign up: AU Breaking News emailHonourable mentions selected by the committee included clankers, a term for an artificial intelligence-driven robot which completes tasks that are normally performed by a human; and medical misogyny, referencing entrenched prejudice against women in the context of medical treatment and knowledge.The people’s choice also went to AI slop, with honourable mentions for medical misogyny and the attention economy (an economy in which human attention is treated as a major commodity).The committee was made up of the editorial team at Macquarie Dictionary as well as the ABC language research specialist Tiger Webb and cryptic crossword legend David Astle, better known as DA.Astle wrote that AI slop was this decade’s equivalent of spam in a piece for the Sydney Morning Herald.
“AI slop, to be precise, the clear victor of the Internet category,” he wrote.“Handily the barb can be packed into fusions, such as slopaganda, slop music and corpslop, to name three.“Though come the crunch, the robots won twice over.Not just their clanker slur, but the scrumptious slop they serve on demand.Alphabet soup du jour with a splash of unknown sources.
”Sign up to Breaking News AustraliaGet the most important news as it breaksafter newsletter promotionAI has only grown from its already stratospheric origins over the last 12 months.Trump has regularly uploaded videos featuring AI slop to his millions of followers, and was dubbed the “emperor” of such content by the New Yorker earlier this year.Domestically, the Australian Electoral Commission has warned AI is being used more and more in many forms of communication, saying while there are some benefits, there are obvious negatives, too.Those harms include deepfake videos, manipulated media and falsified audio.Guardian Australia asked ChatGPT how it felt about AI slop being dubbed 2025’s word du jour.
“The fact that AI slop won Word of the Year tells me that people are becoming more discerning about the quality of AI-generated content,” the AI engine said.“That’s good for everyone – including the development of better AI – because it creates pressure for transparency, accuracy, and substance rather than volume.”ChatGPT said being asked about the honour was a helpful reminder – a prompt, if you will – about its purpose.“I exist to avoid producing exactly what the term refers to – so seeing it elevated to a cultural milestone is a bit like being reminded of the standard I need to live up to every time I answer a prompt.”
UK politics: Risk of Maccabi Tel Aviv facing antisemitic attacks not ‘predominant’ reason for match ban, police tell MPs – as it happened
MPs have been told that the risk of antisemitic hate crime was not the “predominant” reason why West Midlands police wanted to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the Europa League match at Aston Villa.Mike O’Hara, WMP’s assistant chief constable, said in a letter to the Commons home affairs committee that the threat of violence by Maccabi fans was a more important consideration.The letter, which has been published this afternoon by the committee, confirms reporting by the Guardian last month which said that the fans were banned “after police intelligence concluded the biggest risk of violence came from extremist fans of the Israeli club”.Keir Starmer and other political leaders reacted with outrage after the ban was first announced in October. Starmer suggested the police were accepting they would not be able to protect the Maccabi supporters from antisemitic violence, and he said: “The role of the police is to ensure all football fans can enjoy the game, without fear of violence or intimidation
Political corrrectness that made me laugh | Brief letters
Among the endless gems in your paper, the Corrections and Clarifications column is an unheralded jewel. As well as a vehicle for setting the record straight, it is an endless source of wicked mirth. The first correction on 20November was: “An article referred to the current government as looking ‘on course to be the worst for living standards on record’. The analysis of official data on which this comment was based in fact related to the previous government.” I offer Labour the following advice: don’t give up! You have nearly four more years in office
Two peers suspended from House of Lords for breaking lobbying rules
Two long-serving peers are to be suspended from the House of Lords after a parliamentary watchdog ruled that they had broken lobbying rules.Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British army, and David Evans, Lord Evans of Watford, were filmed breaking the rules in undercover footage recorded by the Guardian.Lord Dannatt is to be suspended for four months after he was found to have broken the rules, having offered to secure meetings with ministers for a potential commercial client who wanted to lobby the government.He was secretly filmed telling undercover reporters he could make introductions to ministers and that he would “make a point of getting to know” the best-placed politician.After he was exposed in the undercover footage, the Guardian uncovered three further cases in which he had provided parliamentary services in return for payment
Lords rules and culture make it easy for peers to abuse privileged position
The former head of the British army Richard Dannatt and David Evans, or Lord Evans of Watford, a so-called high-level facilitator, have been found to have broken the House of Lords rules and are facing hefty suspensions as a result.The punishments follow official inquiries into their conduct, after undercover investigations by the Guardian revealed how the two peers separately offered to make introductions to ministers for a potential commercial client. A parliamentary watchdog ruled that the conduct was lobbying for personal profit, behaviour that breaks the fundamental principle that peers should always act solely for the public good.Lord Dannatt bragged to the undercover reporters that he would “make a point of getting to know” the best-placed minister, and make the relevant introduction, while Evans said how it was “great being a Labour peer at the moment because we’ve got our mates who now have senior jobs”. Both thought they were speaking to property developers offering a potentially lucrative deal
Reform UK claim to have saved £331m at English councils – but do the numbers stack up?
Reform UK has ignored requests to share the evidence for its claim to have saved £331m since it took charge of 10 English councils in May, prompting questions over whether the figure is true.The party has boasted that it had achieved £331m worth of savings at English councils it controls. Warning of a “blob” of vested interests devoted to “ripping off” taxpayers, Richard Tice, the new head of the party’s self-styled ‘Doge’ cost-cutting unit, added: “We’re going to war with these people”.Yet on closer analysis, examples of supposed savings at councils ranging from Durham to its “showcase” Kent appear questionable. In some cases, credit is claimed for initiatives already set in train by predecessors
Politicians urge Labour to restore Electoral Commission independence
Keir Starmer is being urged to restore independence to the Electoral Commission, with MPs and peers likely to launch a battle to amend the elections bill in the new year.In a letter to the prime minister, MPs and peers will warn the elections watchdog should not be overseen by the political parties in charge of holding to account.The government is to publish an elections bill early next year, bringing in votes for 16-year-olds and cracking down on loopholes in how political donations are made.However, it is resisting returning independence to the Electoral Commission after Boris Johnson put it under the control of ministers, who can now annually set its priorities and direction.When the Conservatives introduced the new power, the House of Lords passed a cross-party amendment led by the cross-bench peer Lord Judge and co-sponsored by the former Labour home secretary David Blunkett to overturn the change – only for it to be changed back by the Commons
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Macquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic face
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