As the year draws to a close, the dictionaries have nominated their choices of the word of 2023. These are picked each year to highlight spikes in usage, and to reflect high-profile discussion points in online and traditional media. Unsurprisingly, Collins Dictionary named ‘AI’ as its word of 2023. This was the year when ChatGPT revolutionised public understanding, and use, of Artificial Intelligence to answer queries, and generate content. I guess some pedants might quarrel with calling an abbreviation a ‘word’, but there can be little doubt about its currency in 2023.
Perhaps more obscurely, the Cambridge Dictionary announced that the word of the year was ‘hallucinate’ – but this was also a choice about the hype around AI. Rather than its conventional meaning, of sensing or experiencing something that is not actually present, the 2023 usage of ‘hallucinate’ refers to the phenomenon whereby AI systems produce false information in the content they generate. These ‘hallucinations’ are often plausible, but incorrect. By predicting the most likely words to follow from previous ones, AI tools can slip up factually. In its citation, the Cambridge Dictionary team said that ‘the new meaning gets to the heart of why people are talking about AI. Generative AI is a powerful tool but one we’re still learning how to interact with safely and effectively’. You could also say that the word humanises AI products, labelling missteps as an impression of mind, rather than a bug in coding.
Over at Merriam Webster, the preoccupation with perception of reality continued, with its nomination of ‘authentic’ as the word of 2023. This was supported by its consistent high ranking among words people looked up this year. Again, the backdrop of discussion around AI and disinformation contributed to this choice, with issues around trusting what we see in a time of deepfakes and AI content, identified by the dictionary. A lexicographer at the dictionary went so far as to say ‘We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity’. There was also a more human inspiration for the crowning of the term, found in appeals by celebrities from Taylor Swift to Elon Musk, for people to pursue ‘authenticity’ in their actions in real life and on social media.
Among Merriam Webster’s also-rans was the Oxford Dictionary’s outlier choice for word of the year: ‘rizz’. This choice may have baffled many over 35 years old, but it refers to a new coinage, based on ‘charisma’, to mean ‘attractiveness, style or charm’. It can also be used as a verb, ‘rizz up’ meaning to charm, or seduce, someone. This most human of terms at first looks out of place amongst the tech-dominated choices of other dictionaries. But it occurred to me that ‘rizz’, or charisma, is very much part of what works in claiming ‘authenticity’ these days, and in gaining followers online and in real life. Just this morning on Radio 4, Cambridge academic, David Runciman, was discussing his new book which puts forward the idea that states and corporations are kind of machines, analogous to AI, which process information, and on which we rely to run functions which underpin much of daily life. When frustrated with politics and monolithic bureaucracies, he argued, we often turn to charismatic, empathetic politicians who appear to embody our hopes and fears, and who humanise our struggles. They often do this, of course, by defining a ‘them’ as well as an ’us’, making for turbulent, polarising political battles.
As we contemplate a new year when over 40 countries will hold General Elections, perhaps we should be as wary of ‘rizz’ as we often are of AI. 2024 will likely see a re-run of a Biden vs Trump contest in the USA. Here in the UK, we may face an Election without much ‘rizz’ on the menu, but with plenty of scope for division and disinformation. Even AI might struggle to predict whether the contest will actually happen in 2024, or if the ‘tetchy/snippy/peevish’ Mr Sunak will hang on to the bitter end of January 2025. The one certainty is that no-one will be calling him ‘Rizz-i’.
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