“Authentic.” “Hallucinate.” “AI.” “Rizz.”
These four words are not random and unrelated. Instead, they were selected by major international dictionary publishers as their word-of-the-year choices for 2023.
There is a timely connection with these four words. It has to do with the rise of artificial intelligence and tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, DALL-E, BingAI and others. These artificial intelligence tools can generate language similar to what a person might say.
The initial release of ChatGTP was Nov. 30, 2022, and since that time, it has become more sophisticated in its responses. Image generation tools using artificial intelligence are also presenting users with some remarkable works.
The publishers of the Collins English Dictionary chose AI, or artificial intelligence, as its word of the year.
“The revolutionary AI-powered language model burst into the public consciousness in late 2022, wowing us with its ability to mimic natural human speech,” a blog from Collins read. “While people were understandably fascinated, they also started to get a bit anxious. If computers were suddenly experts in that most human of domains, language, what next? Cue an explosion of debate, scrutiny, and prediction, and more than enough justification for Collins’ 2023 Word of the Year: AI.”
The publishers at Merriam-Webster chose “authentic” as the word of 2023.
“We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity,” editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. “What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more.”
The word “hallucinate,” chosen by the publishers of the Cambridge Dictionary, also connects with the rise of generative artificial intelligence tools.
“When an artificial intelligence (= a computer system that has some of the qualities that the human brain has, such as the ability to produce language in a way that seems human) hallucinates, it produces false information,” reads a new definition added to the word.
“The fact that AIs can ‘hallucinate’ reminds us that humans still need to bring their critical thinking skills to the use of these tools. AIs are fantastic at churning through huge amounts of data to extract specific information and consolidate it. But the more original you ask them to be, the likelier they are to go astray,” said Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary’s publishing manager.
With these three words, the Oxford English Dictionary publishers’ choice of “rizz” initially seems out of place. The word is a colloquial noun, defined as “style, charm, or attractiveness; the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.”
The word is believed to be a shortened form of “charisma.” Over the past year, its use has spread on social media.
Unlike the choices from Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and Collins, the Oxford word of the year is not directly related to artificial intelligence. However, the concept of charisma still comes into play in the AI world.
While artificial intelligence tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the writing created by these tools still lacks the tone of a living, breathing person. Similarly, art created by artificial intelligence image generation tools has something of a dreamlike quality and will not be mistaken for something created by a person.
Put simply, the “rizz” factor is missing – at least for now.
The world is continuing to change, and at present, the rise of generative artificial intelligence tools is creating some of these changes.
To cope with these changes, people need words to talk about the trends affecting them. Authentic, hallucinate, AI and rizz are some of these words.
John Arendt is the editor of the Summerland Review.