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Roslyn Petelin, Honorary Associate Professor in Writing, The University of Queensland

AI slop is Macquarie’s 2025 Word of the Year. I applaud the choice – but was bored by the shortlist

Macquarie Artificial Intelligence

AI slop is Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2025. It also won the people’s choice vote. The dictionary defines the word as “low-quality content created by generative AI [artificial intelligence], often containing errors, and not requested by the user”.

I’ve spent the last year researching the solicitous, duplicitous and ubiquitous generative AI – and I’ve been drowning in AI slop. So I applaud the choice.

This year began with Arwa Mahdawi’s Guardian column in January, warning the internet is “rapidly being overtaken by AI slop” – and sharing bizarre examples found on Facebook: AI-generated images of Jesus made out of shrimps.

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