'AI' is Collins Dictionary's 2023 Word of the Year
AI, which is short for artificial intelligence, has been named Word of the Year by Collins Dictionary this year.
The publisher made the announcement on Wednesday, Nov. 1 as it shared AI's definition in its dictionary: "the modelling of human mental functions by computer programs." They also pointed out that the usage of the term increased four times this year.
According to a BBC report, Collins managing director Alex Beecroft referred to AI as "the talking point of 2023."
"We know that AI has been a big focus this year in the way that it has developed and has quickly become as ubiquitous and embedded in our lives as email, streaming, or any other once futuristic, now everyday technology," he added.
The WOTY contenders this year include nepo baby or "a person who has been perceived as benefitting from nepotism by having famous parents" and deinfluencing or "warning social media followers to avoid certain products or lifestyle choices."
Here are the other shortlisted words for 2023:
- Bazball: "a style of test cricket in which the batting side attempts to gain the initiative by playing in a highly aggressive manner"
- Canon event: "an event that is essential to the formation of an individual’s character or identity"
- Debanking: "the act of depriving a person of banking facilities"
- Greedflation: "the use of inflation as an excuse to raise prices to artificially high levels in order to increase corporate profits"
- Semaglutide: "a medication used to suppress the appetite and control high blood sugar"
- Ultraprocessed: "(of food) prepared using complex industrial methods from multiple ingredients, often including ingredients with little or no nutritional value"
- Ulez: "an area, especially one in a big city, where most vehicles have to pay to enter and vehicles that produce a lot of pollution have to pay more."