LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JANUARY 09: Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella speaks during the keynote address by Walmart Inc. Chairman and CEO Doug McMillon during CES 2024 at The Venice Resort Las Vegas on January 9, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world’s largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs through January 12 and features nearly 4,000 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 130,000 attendees. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
In mid-December 2025, the editors of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary chose “slope”“As their word of the year. Their definition: “Low quality digital content that is produced in quantity, usually through artificial intelligence.”
It’s no mystery why they thought this word was the best for 2025. It was a year that was filled with uncanny AI-generated commercials, search engine decayAnd a tidal wave of AI music spamming streaming apps.
Although this choice clearly struck a popular nerve, not everyone appreciated the dictionary’s cheeky commentary on AI companies and the lousy cottage industry they’ve created. one in year end roundup For example, shared via LinkedIn, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained that he would like us all to step down in 2025.
“We need to go beyond the logic of carelessness versus sophistication,” Nadella wrote in a mocking post. flagged by windows centralArguing that humanity must learn to accept AI as the “new balance” of human nature. (As Welcome points out, in fact there is growing evidence that AI harms human cognitive ability.)
Moving forward, Nadella said we now know enough about “riding the exponential of model capabilities” as well as managing the “‘jagged’ edges” of AI to allow us to “get the value of AI in the real world.”
“Ultimately, the most meaningful measure of progress is the results for each of us,” the CEO concluded in an impressive flurry of corporate-speak, which may or may not be AI-generated by itself. “It will be a messy process of discovery, as all technology and product development always is.”
Nadella’s comments come as Microsoft users have collectively rebelled against the company’s AI products, which have been imposed on them largely without their consent. Earlier in December, it was reported that a staggering one billion PCs were still running Windows 10, although fully half were eligible to upgrade to the AI-saturated Windows 11.
That being the case, it’s clear the CEO has a specific ax to grind with those who refuse to walk gently into slop night. Tech CEOs like Nadella may talk big about philanthropy and human achievement, but at the end of the day, AI is a product – and like any product, it lives or dies dependent on consumer demand.
More on the slopes: YouTube is now shutting down channels posting AI slop
