Merriam-Webster recently named "slop" as its 2025 word of the year, chosen on December 15 and 16. This term describes the vast amount of low-quality, often AI-generated content flooding social media, exemplified by strange videos like an emotional support kangaroo. Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, noted the word captures a blend of fascination, annoyance, and even a mocking tone towards AI. This selection signals that AI is still far from replacing human creativity, given the perceived low quality of its output. The rise of "slop" is fueling a backlash against AI-generated content, suggesting a potential surge in "100% human" marketing by 2026. Consumers are reportedly weary of bland, repetitive AI content that can be difficult to distinguish. Companies are already responding; iHeartMedia uses a "guaranteed human" tagline, finding 90 percent of listeners prefer human-created media. Similarly, The Tyee labels AI content, and Netflix's "3 Body Problem" includes a "made by humans" card, highlighting a preference for human-driven creativity. In the realm of commerce, new AI-driven solutions are emerging to streamline sales. Stripe recently launched its Agentic Commerce Suite, a low-code solution that helps businesses sell through AI agents by building on its Agentic Commerce Protocol. This suite allows one integration to connect to many AI agents and manages Shared Payment Tokens. Major brands like Coach, Kate Spade, URBN, Squarespace, and Wix plan to adopt this. Separately, Klarna introduced its Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard providing a live feed of about 100 million products and 400 million prices across 12 markets. Klarna's Chief Commercial Officer, David Sykes, stated this creates a common language for AI systems. This follows Klarna's expanded partnership with Google in October for the Agent Payments Protocol. AI is also making significant strides in specialized fields. On Wall Street, AI algorithms made all trading decisions on December 16, raising questions about accountability when artificial intelligence controls financial markets. In cybersecurity, Swimlane's AI Security Operations Center (SOC) reduced its Mean Time To Respond by 51 percent, from 18 minutes to 8.75 minutes, saving about 60 hours of human time weekly. Meanwhile, naoo AG, led by founder Thomas Wolfensberger, launched naoo search on December 16 in Zurich, an AI discovery layer for personalized content, creators, and products, available on iOS and Android. Despite its advancements, AI faces considerable challenges, particularly on factory floors. Many manufacturers struggle to move beyond pilot projects due to outdated infrastructure, messy data systems, and poor internet connections, making productivity gains largely theoretical. Recognizing this need, Tennessee offered an "A.I. for Manufacturing" training course in McKenzie on December 10. Concurrently, Palo Alto Networks' State of Cloud Security Report 2025 warns that AI is sharply increasing cloud security risks, with 99 percent of organizations using generative AI for software development and nearly all experiencing an AI system attack in the past year. The competition in AI hardware is intensifying, with Google's custom AI chips, TPUs, emerging as a significant challenger to Nvidia's market dominance. Google's latest "Ironwood" TPU is four times more efficient for training and inference than its predecessor. While primarily for internal use, Google now leases TPUs to external customers, including Apple and Meta. Morgan Stanley projects Google could sell 5 million TPUs in 2027 and 7 million in 2028. Looking ahead, SoundHound AI's co-founder and CEO, Keyvan Mohajer, will unveil new in-vehicle generative AI technology at CES, enabling voice commands for tasks like restaurant reservations and parking directly from cars.
Key Takeaways
- Merriam-Webster named "slop" its 2025 word of the year, describing low-quality, often AI-generated social media content.
- A growing backlash against "slop" suggests a rise in "100% human" marketing by 2026, with iHeartMedia, The Tyee, and Netflix already adopting human-centric tags.
- Stripe launched its Agentic Commerce Suite to facilitate sales through AI agents, building on its Agentic Commerce Protocol and managing Shared Payment Tokens.
- Klarna introduced its Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard providing a live feed of ~100 million products and ~400 million prices across 12 markets for AI-driven commerce, following a partnership with Google.
- AI algorithms solely controlled Wall Street trading decisions on December 16, raising questions about accountability in financial markets.
- Swimlane's AI Security Operations Center (SOC) reduced Mean Time To Respond by 51%, from 18 minutes to 8.75 minutes, saving ~60 human hours weekly.
- naoo AG, founded by Thomas Wolfensberger, launched naoo search on December 16, an AI discovery layer for personalized content, creators, and products, available on iOS and Android.
- Palo Alto Networks' report warns AI increases cloud security risks, with 99% of organizations using generative AI for software development and nearly all experiencing an AI system attack.
- Google's custom AI chips, TPUs, are challenging Nvidia's dominance, with the "Ironwood" TPU being four times more efficient; Apple and Meta are now external customers.
- SoundHound AI's co-founder and CEO, Keyvan Mohajer, will unveil new in-vehicle generative AI technology at CES, enabling voice commands for commerce activities directly from cars.
Merriam-Webster picks "slop" as 2025 word of the year
Merriam-Webster announced "slop" as its word of the year for 2025 on December 15. The dictionary chose "slop" to describe the large amount of low-quality content found on social media, often made by AI. Greg Barlow, Merriam-Webster's president, said the word captures how people feel about AI: fascinated, annoyed, and a bit silly. The term "slop" communicates a mocking tone rather than fear about AI technology.
Merriam-Webster names "slop" 2025 word of the year
Merriam-Webster chose "slop" as its word of the year for 2025. This term describes the huge amount of low-quality content, often made by artificial intelligence, found on social media. Examples include strange videos like an emotional support kangaroo or a cat climbing the Eiffel Tower. Editors picked "slop" to show that AI is still far from replacing human creativity due to its low-quality output. Other highly searched words in 2025 included "tariff" and "gerrymander."
Merriam-Webster picks "slop" for 2025 word of the year
Merriam-Webster named "slop" as its word of the year for 2025 on December 16. The dictionary defines "slop" as low-quality digital content often produced in large amounts by artificial intelligence. Merriam-Webster noted that people find this content annoying but also consume it. The word sends a message to AI that it is not always super intelligent when trying to replace human creativity. Other words considered were "gerrymander," "touch grass," and "performative."
Anti-AI marketing may rise in 2026
A growing backlash against AI-generated content, called "slop" by Merriam-Webster for 2024, suggests 2026 could see a rise in "100% human" marketing. Consumers are tired of bland, repetitive AI content that can be hard to spot. iHeartMedia already launched a "guaranteed human" tagline, finding 90 percent of listeners prefer human-created media. The Tyee, a Canadian news site, labels AI content, and Netflix's "3 Body Problem" includes a "made by humans" card.
Stripe introduces Agentic Commerce Suite for AI sales
Stripe launched its new Agentic Commerce Suite to help businesses sell easily through AI agents. This suite builds on Stripe's Agentic Commerce Protocol, an open standard for AI agents and businesses to communicate. The low-code solution lets businesses connect to many AI agents with just one integration. It also manages Shared Payment Tokens for secure and efficient payments. Major brands like Coach, Kate Spade, and URBN, along with platforms such as Squarespace and Wix, plan to use this new solution.
Klarna launches Agentic Product Protocol for AI sales
Klarna introduced its new Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard to boost AI-driven commerce. This protocol provides a live, structured feed of about 100 million products and 400 million prices across 12 markets. It helps AI agents find, compare, and recommend products from various merchants and platforms. Klarna's Chief Commercial Officer, David Sykes, stated that this protocol creates a common language for AI systems and businesses to share product data. This move follows Klarna's expanded partnership with Google in October to support the Agent Payments Protocol.
AI algorithms now control Wall Street trading
On December 16, a new kind of trading battle emerged on Wall Street. This battle involved no human hedge fund managers or financial analysts. Instead, lines of code and AI algorithms made all the trading decisions. This raises important questions about who is responsible when artificial intelligence takes charge of financial markets.
Swimlane AI SOC halves response time
Swimlane's AI Security Operations Center, or SOC, significantly cut its Mean Time To Respond (MTTR) by 51 percent, from 18 minutes to 8.75 minutes. The company achieved this by using its Turbine platform and specialized Hero AI Agents. These agents, including Verdict, Threat Intelligence, MITRE ATT&CK & D3FEND, and Investigation Agents, automate complex security tasks. This automation saves about 60 hours of human time and $2,600 in operational costs weekly. Swimlane now autonomously closes around 350 cases each week, moving towards fully autonomous security operations.
naoo launches AI search for personalized discovery
naoo AG introduced naoo search, a new semantic hybrid AI discovery layer, on December 16 in Zurich, Switzerland. This AI-powered search helps users find content, creators, and products based on meaning and interests, not just keywords. The system uses a multilingual engine supporting seven languages and will expand to include businesses and real-world locations in Q1 2026. Thomas Wolfensberger, naoo's founder, believes this AI can transform how people discover many things, including jobs and local commerce. naoo search is now available for iOS and Android users.
Palo Alto Networks warns AI increases cloud risks
Palo Alto Networks' State of Cloud Security Report 2025 warns that AI is causing a sharp rise in cloud security risks. The report, based on a survey of over 2,800 leaders, found that 99 percent of organizations use generative AI for software development, increasing code volume and new risks. These risks include insecure configurations, vulnerable APIs, and prompt-based attacks. API attacks rose by 41 percent, and nearly all respondents experienced an AI system attack in the past year. Palo Alto Networks recommends strengthening security early in development and prioritizing identity, permissions, and automation to combat these threats.
AI faces challenges on factory floors
Artificial intelligence still struggles to make a big impact on factory floors despite years of promises and large investments. Many manufacturers cannot move past pilot projects because of outdated infrastructure, messy data systems, and poor internet connections. Experts say most factories lack the basic digital setup AI needs, making productivity gains mostly theoretical. While AI shows promise in areas like predictive maintenance, it requires clean data, modern networks, and clear goals. Manufacturers must fix these basic systems and make targeted upgrades to fully use AI's potential.
Tennessee offers AI for Manufacturing course
On December 10, industries from middle and west Tennessee attended an "A.I. for Manufacturing" training course in McKenzie. Bethel University's Vera Low Center for Student Enrichment hosted the event. This course was one of only four such training sessions held across the state of Tennessee.
SoundHound AI CEO unveils new car tech at CES
SoundHound AI's co-founder and CEO, Keyvan Mohajer, will reveal new in-vehicle technology and his vision for generative AI at CES. This groundbreaking technology will allow drivers to use voice commands for tasks like making restaurant reservations and finding parking. It will also enable other commerce activities directly from their cars.
Google TPUs challenge Nvidia in AI chip market
Google's custom AI chips, called TPUs, are gaining popularity and pose a threat to Nvidia's dominance in the AI chip market. Google designed TPUs specifically for AI tasks, making them more efficient and faster for certain models than Nvidia's GPUs. The latest "Ironwood" TPU is four times better than its predecessor for training and inference. While Google mainly uses TPUs internally, it now leases them to external customers like Apple and Meta. Morgan Stanley projects Google could sell 5 million TPUs in 2027 and 7 million in 2028, showing their growing impact.
Sources
- Merriam-Webster names 'slop' the word of the year
- āSlopā: Merriam-Websterās word of the year criticizes junk content created by artificial intelligence
- Merriam-Websterās 2025 word of the year takes aim at poor AI content
- Why 2026 could be the year of anti-AI marketing
- Stripe launches Agentic Commerce Suite for AI-driven sales
- Klarna Rolls Out Open āAgentic Product Protocolā To Power AI-Driven Commerce / Fresh Today / CUToday.info
- CX Daily: Trading by Algorithm: Who is Responsible When AI Calls the Shots?
- Inside Our AI SOC: How Swimlane Cut MTTR in Half
- naoo launches naoo search ā a semantic hybrid AI discovery layer connecting content, creators, real-world places and products
- Palo Alto Networks warns that AI is driving a surge in cloud security risks
- Why AI still struggles on the factory floor
- Stateās āA.I. for Manufacturingā Course Comes to McKenzie
- SoundHound AI CEO to unveil new in-vehicle tech and vision for generative AI at CES
- What are Google TPUs, and why are they bad news for Nvidia?
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