Real or Fake? AI Makes the Call – ‘Authentic’ is Word of the Year!
The word of the year selected by Merriam-Webster Inc. is “authentic,” emphasizing the increasing difficulty in distinguishing between truth and falsehood due to the prevalence of misinformation on platforms such as Elon Musk’s X Corp. and the growing influence of artificial intelligence.
“The line between ‘real’ and ‘fake’ has blurred,” Merriam-Webster Editor at Large Peter Sokolowski said in a statement. “As a result, authenticity has become the social media and marketing gold standard for building trust.”
Searches for authentic “were up significantly in 2023, driven by stories and conversations about artificial intelligence, celebrity culture, identity and social media,” the dictionary company said. It describes the word as an aspirational quality around which celebrities such as Taylor Swift and Musk seek to build an identity.
According to the dictionary, “deepfake” queries spiked in April after Tesla Inc.’s lawyers argued that Musk’s statements about self-driving safety may not have been true. Searches for “X” stood out in July as people tried to make sense of Musk’s Twitter rebrand.
Other 2023 highlights include “Dystopia,” “Indictment” and “Coronation.” Last year’s most popular word was “gaslight”.
