AI slop refers to low-quality, mass-produced digital content generated by artificial intelligence, often created as clickbait to exploit the attention economy and earn ad revenue. The term, which carries a pejorative connotation similar to "spam," was named the 2025 Word of the Year by both Merriam-Webster and the American Dialect Society. While its origins trace back to 2022 on platforms like 4chan, British programmer Simon Willison championed the term in 2024, coinciding with the rise of Google's Gemini AI and widespread media criticism. Defined by properties like "superficial competence" and "mass producibility," this content varies in utility and surrealism, though academics note it often features a banal, easy-to-process style. It has proliferated on social media like Facebook and TikTok, where creators—often in developing countries—generate images targeting US audiences for higher advertising rates, contributing to what some compare to a rise in digital entropy.