Al Slop, Shadow Content and Digital Safety

Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2025 was slop, which the oldest dictionary publisher in the United States defines as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” 

The dictionary also defines the related but separate terms: misinformation as “incorrect or misleading information”; and disinformation as “false information deliberately and often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth.” While both can also apply to information shared by individuals and organizations, governments and related political communicators are widely considered the primary practitioners.

Shadow content is different. In our definition it is “manipulated, deceptive or fake content issued around corporate, earnings or M&A announcements.” The term can also be broadly applied to “any content that shadows authentic content produced by corporations, media organizations or other parties with the goal of deceiving audiences into believing it is real and acting upon it. Fake press releases, media articles, images or deepfake videos issued in the wake of an official announcement or publication of a story, all constitute shadow content.