Merriam‑Webster Names “Slop” 2025 Word of the Year as AI Floods Digital Content

Merriam‑Webster selected “slop” as its 2025 Word of the Year to describe low‑quality, mass‑produced AI content. The later report expands on this by naming examples (AI tools such as OpenAI’s Sora and Google Gemini’s Veo) and citing a May 2025 study estimating roughly 75% of new web content involves some form of AI. Analysts warn of a growing “slop economy” that prioritizes volume over quality, driving information inequality, content degradation and displacement of human creators. Crucially for crypto traders, AI‑generated slop has begun appearing in domains that affect markets — automated financial analyses, market reports and cybersecurity briefs — increasing the risk of inaccurate, misleading or fabricated signals. Responses include authentication systems, curated quality services, hybrid human‑AI workflows and potential regulation requiring disclosure of AI content. Traders should treat automated market analysis and on‑chain/ off‑chain reports with greater skepticism, verify sources, favour vetted human expertise, and consider risk controls (reduced position sizes, stricter entry rules) to manage information risk. Primary keywords: Merriam‑Webster, slop, AI‑generated content, slop economy. Secondary/semantic keywords: generative AI, low‑quality content, market analysis, misinformation, authentication, disclosure.