‘Slop’ is the word of the year. Here’s how to avoid it

image via qz.com
image via qz.com

The internet has spent the year arguing about whether AI is genius, theft, or destiny. Merriam-Webster’s editors cut through it with a simpler verdict: slop. The dictionary crowned “slop” its 2025 “word of the year,” joining in on the anti-AI backlash and recognizing that the internet’s new factory setting looks a lot like synthetic filler — low-quality AI content, made in bulk, and poured straight into feeds until the human parts get buried. If your For You page has started to resemble a trough of glossy, almost-real nonsense, congrats, you’re experiencing a cultural moment — with a dictionary entry.

https://qz.com/ai-slop-word-of-the-year-miriam-webster-avoid-it

‘Slop Evader’ Lets You Surf the Web Like It’s 2022

image via 404media.co
image via 404media.co

[Slop Evader is] a new browser tool that filters your web searches to only include results from before November 30, 2022 — the day that ChatGPT was released to the public. Created by artist and researcher Tega Brain, who says she was motivated by the growing dismay over the tech industry’s unrelenting, aggressive rollout of so-called “generative AI”—despite widespread criticism and the wider public’s distaste for it.

https://www.404media.co/slop-evader-browser-extension-pre-generative-ai-search-filter/

Applying to Jobs Has Become an AI-Powered Wasteland

image via futurism.com
image via futurism.com

If you’re one of millions of job seekers struggling to find stable employment, just know it’s probably not you. Per the New York Times, the number of applications sent via LinkedIn has surged over 45 percent since 2024; the rate now stands at a dizzying 11,000 apps per minute on the site. One HR worker was gobsmacked when her fully-remote job posting received 400 applications in just 12 hours, surging to over 1,200 apps 36 hours later.

https://futurism.com/job-applications-ai-slop

AI Models Show Signs of Falling Apart as They Ingest More AI-Generated Data

image via futurism.com
image via futurism.com

As CEOs trip over themselves to invest in artificial intelligence, there's a massive and growing elephant in the room: that any models trained on web data from after the advent of ChatGPT in 2022 are ingesting AI-generated data — an act of low-key cannibalism that may well be causing increasing technical issues that could come to threaten the entire industry.

https://futurism.com/ai-models-falling-apart

Google’s “AI slop” invasion feels like the beginning of the end

image via creativebloq.com
image via creativebloq.com

A Google image search screenshot has ruffled feathers online after it showed more AI-generated results than real-world examples of baby peacocks. Is it a little random? Yes, but the screenshot has sparked mass debate online, with many creatives calling for stricter rules for AI-generated search results to mitigate the spread of misinformation.

https://www.creativebloq.com/ai/googles-ai-slop-invasion-feels-like-the-beginning-of-the-end