AI has dominated apps of the year, with Google Play store users choosing ChatGPT as the user app of the year, with Apple also dedicated a major AI section to its app of the year lists, too.
Now comes the news that word of the year lists for the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries have focused on AI words on the shortlist of worthy words, while Merriam-Webster has a new definition for “authentic” in the AI age.
Cambridge’s AI word of the year is “hallucinate” – whereby generative AI models confident spew out misinformation and make things up.
The Computer Daily News publication says the acceptance of the word despite its original limitation to human perception “underscores our readiness to ascribe human-like attributes to AI,” quoting Cambridge AI ethicist Henry Shevlin.
Oxford included the word “prompt” as a finalist in its words, which it describes as “a versatile and underused word that has gained another definition with its now well-known meaning relating to the human side of generative AI.”
TechCrunch points to Merriam-Webster having “grabbed the other end of the stick with the selection of “authentic” as their word of the year. “With the rise of artificial intelligence—and its impact on deepfake videos, actors’ contracts, academic honesty, and a vast number of other topics—the line between ‘real’ and ‘fake’ has become increasingly blurred.”
TechCrunch continues: “While “authentic” didn’t get a brand new definition, it did get a new and important connotation. For years we have worried about whether or not something we or others are doing is authentic. Authenticity is a paradox modern consumerism: It can’t be bought or sold, and as such it is perhaps the most valuable and marketable quality in the world.”
You can watch me speak about this and plenty more at the Chris Smith Show, from Wednesday 6 December, 2023 below:
