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,”
Ed Miliband confirms crackdown on new North Sea oil and gas exploration
The government has ruled out new North Sea oil and gas exploration or lower taxes for fossil fuel companies as it struggles to protect workers from the industry’s collapse.In a strategy paper, Ed Miliband confirmed the crackdown on new North Sea exploration – although the energy secretary will still allow new offshore fossil fuel projects to move ahead as long as they are linked to existing fields.The strategy was released alongside Rachel Reeves’ budget statement, which ended months of speculation over the future of the North Sea industry by confirming the government’s intention to ban new oil and gas licences to explore new fields, and keep tax rates in place.The Labour party swept to power with a promise to end new exploration drilling, alongside a pledge to work with oil and gas companies to manage the North Sea’s remaining lifespan.The government hopes that by allowing “tie-back” projects that are linked to existing schemes it can strike a balance between protecting thousands of North Sea jobs and meeting the UK’s climate commitments
North Sea plan permits new drilling on existing fields and no big shifts to clean energy
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has returned from the Cop30 climate conference in Brazil, where he championed the UK’s world-leading promise to ban all new oil and gas licences and backed the call for a blueprint to “transition away from fossil fuels”.Back at home, the government says it is sticking to its manifesto pledge but plans to allow some new drilling in oil and gas fields that have existing licenses.The North Sea strategy, released on Wednesday alongside the autumn budget, will introduce “transitional energy certificates” that will allow new drilling on or near existing fields. These are called “tiebacks” and will enable a small amount of new fossil fuel extraction. The government argues that this will help ensure they remain economically viable and are managed for the entirety of their lifespan
ChatGPT firm blames boy’s suicide on ‘misuse’ of its technology
The maker of ChatGPT has said the suicide of a 16-year-old was down to his “misuse” of its system and was “not caused” by the chatbot.The comments came in OpenAI’s response to a lawsuit filed against the San Francisco company and its chief executive, Sam Altman, by the family of California teenager Adam Raine.Raine killed himself in April after extensive conversations and “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”, the family’s lawyer has said.The lawsuit alleges the teenager discussed a method of suicide with ChatGPT on several occasions, that it guided him on whether a suggested method would work, offered to help him write a suicide note to his parents and that the version of the technology he used was “rushed to market … despite clear safety issues”.According to filings at the superior court of the state of California on Tuesday, OpenAI said that “to the extent that any ‘cause’ can be attributed to this tragic event” Raine’s “injuries and harm were caused or contributed to, directly and proximately, in whole or in part, by [his] misuse, unauthorised use, unintended use, unforeseeable use, and/or improper use of ChatGPT”
Two London councils enact emergency plans after being hit by cyber-attack
At least two London councils have been hit by a cyber-attack and have invoked emergency plans as they investigate whether any data has been compromised.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City council, which share some IT infrastructure, said a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines. The councils, which provide services for 360,000 residents, shut down several computerised systems as a precaution to limit further possible damage.Engineers at RBKC worked through the night on Monday, when the incident occurred, and Tuesday. Services including checking council tax bills and paying parking fines are likely to be limited at RBKC, which said its website would probably go up and down during Wednesday as security fixes progressed
Commonwealth Games hosts Ahmedabad vow not to repeat Delhi 2010 farce
Ahmedabad has vowed not to make the same mistakes as Delhi in 2010 and to “lay the foundations for the next 100 years” after being confirmed as the host of the 2030 Commonwealth Games.Organisers said that 15 to 17 sports would feature in 2030 – up from the 10 that will feature in Glasgow next summer – including athletics, swimming, table tennis, bowls and netball. Twenty20 cricket and triathlon are on a provisional list, with the process to determine the final list of sports starting next month.The Indian city had been selected ahead of a rival bid from Abuja in Nigeria for the multi-sport event in five years’ time, and was given final approval at Commonwealth Sport’s general assembly in Glasgow on Wednesday.With India heavily targeting the 2036 Summer Olympics, organisers were keen to stress that the Commonwealth Games in the state of Gujarat would prove they could organise a large multi-sport event without any hiccups
Field of Dreams-like shrine to cricket built ‘from bud to bat’ – photo essay
Ian Tinetti watches the wind in his willows as Newstead’s opening batters prepare to take on Hepburn in the hamlet of Shepherds Flat. His self-made cricket ground is about the only thing that is flat in Victoria’s Central Highlands and, on a chilly November afternoon, the adjacent grove of English Willow makes it feel even more like the Yorkshire Dales.Visiting this Field of Dreams-like shrine to the game is like uncovering the interconnected layers of a Russian doll – bat making, the Hepburn area’s Swiss-Italian heritage, the history of Victorian cricket and Australian rules football, and also, appropriately, doll collecting.Cricket Willow’s origin can be traced back to an idle exchange during the 1902 Ashes Test at the MCG, when umpire Robert Crockett said to England captain Archie MacLaren that Australia did not cultivate its own bat willow.Above: Newstead and Hepburn meet in a Castlemaine & District Cricket Association match at the self-made ground at Cricket Willow
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