'Slop' is Merriam-Webster's word of the year

Merriam-Webster has selected "slop" for the dictionary company's 2025 word of the year. The leading lexicographers define slop as "digital content of low quality that is produced u [...]

The Morning After: Roomba maker iRobot files for bankruptcy

iRobot, the company that brought robotic vacuum cleaners to homes and popular culture, has filed for bankruptcy. It plans to sell all assets to its primary supplier, the Chinese company Picea Robotic [...]

One in five YouTube Shorts shown to new users is AI-generated slop, study finds

A recent study shows that low-quality AI videos are already a million-dollar industry firmly embedded in YouTube's daily feed. Set up a fresh account today, and one in five Shorts will be AI slop [...]

Study maps developer frustration over "AI slop" as a "tragedy of the commons" in software development

A qualitative study looks at how developers perceive and push back against low-quality AI content, or "slop," in software development. The critics describe a "tragedy of the commons&quo [...]

The RAMpocalypse is suffocating Apple's MacBook Air supply, with delivery delays up to a month — here's what to buy instead

The RAM crisis isn't getting any better, and Apple's MacBook Air shipment estimates are direct evidence of that. [...]

LinkedIn now has a ‘Seems like AI slop’ button, and yes, it really says slop

LinkedIn has a name for the vaguely inspirational, AI-written posts clogging its feed, and now it has a button for them. The professional network has quietly added a “Seems like AI slop” option to [...]

There's yet another study about how bad AI is for our brains

A group of researchers from across the US and the UK have conducted a study on what AI does to our brains and the results are, in a word, grim. These results were published in a paper called "AI [...]

Tired of AI slop on Instagram? These alternative apps are for human artists only

Baby Elon Musk. Shrimp Jesus. The Titanic colliding with an iceberg lettuce. Social media is saturated with AI slop — low-quality, often ridiculous and sometimes disturbing images, videos, or words [...]

Tech's biggest winners of 2025

Every December, the Engadget staff compiles a list of the year’s biggest winners. We scour over articles from the previous 12 months to determine the people, companies, products and trends that made [...]