The rise of one-sided emotional bonds with artificial intelligence has driven Cambridge Dictionary to name “parasocial” its Word of the Year for 2025.
While the term once described the connection fans felt with TV stars, it has now evolved to capture the millions of people forming relationships with AI chatbots, treating them as confidants, friends, or even romantic partners.
“Parasocial captures the 2025 zeitgeist,” said Colin McIntosh of the Cambridge Dictionary. “It’s a great example of how language changes. What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream.”
The dictionary reports that the phenomenon has moved beyond the “traditional and healthy manifestation of fandom” seen with stars like Taylor Swift. Users are now creating “emotionally meaningful – and in some cases troubling – connections” with AI tools like ChatGPT.
“Creepy behaviour”
The term has seen spikes in lookups following major pop culture events. The dictionary noted surges when streamer IShowSpeed blocked an obsessive fan he labelled his “number 1 parasocial,” and when singer Chappell Roan called out fans for “creepy behaviour” last year.
Simone Schnall, Professor of Experimental Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, warns that this shift is redefining how ordinary people interact online.
“The rise of parasocial relationships has redefined fandom, celebrity and, with AI, how ordinary people interact online,” Schnall said.
Schnall explained that as trust in traditional media breaks down, people turn to influencers and AI for authority. “When they spend many hours consuming their content – develop parasocial bonds, treating them more like close friends, family or cult leaders,” she added.
Cambridge also updated its entry for “slop” to describe low-quality internet content “especially when it is created by artificial intelligence.” Other new terms tracked include “glazing,” defined as excessive praise from AI chatbots that feels insincere, and “doom spending,” the act of spending money to soothe anxiety about the future.
A different vibe
Reflecting a similar technological shift, Collins Dictionary independently selected “vibe coding” as its own word of the year.
Coined by AI pioneer Andrej Karpathy, vibe coding describes using natural language to tell an AI what to write, effectively “programming by vibes, not variables.”
Collins also highlighted a lexicon increasingly critical of tech power dynamics. Its runners-up included “broligarchy,” referring to the clique of wealthy tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who wield outsized political influence, and “clanker,” a derogatory term for robots and AI adopted by workers watching their jobs disappear.
Other terms on the Collins shortlist included “taskmasking,” a quiet rebellion against return-to-office mandates where workers simulate productivity, and “coolcations,” the trend of holidaying in colder climates like Norway or Iceland to escape summer heatwaves.
