Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Question Everything

Why vigilance matters in an age of AI slop and digital deception

By André van Heerden, Communications Director

Well known and established dictionary Mirriam-Webster announced slop as its 2025 word of the year. Many dictionaries and linguists choose words of the year by looking at what new words are most searched for online, what words are more than just a passing fad, and what words have a bigger story behind them.

The fact that slop was chosen by many says a lot about our world and this past year.

Mirriam-Webster defined slop as “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” They went on to say that “the flood of slop in 2025 included absurd videos, off-kilter advertising images, cheesy propaganda, fake news that looks pretty real, junky AI-written books, ‘workslop’ reports that waste coworkers’ time . . . and lots of talking cats. People found it annoying, and people ate it up.”

The danger of course is that as AI slop gets better and more convincing, it’s hard to know what’s real. I’ve had a number of debates with a relative who will tell me about a terrible news story. When I doubt its authenticity and actually look for real news sources, there are none. The news story has been entirely made up! His Internet searches have revealed what type of news he’s looking for, and AI is supplying the made-up news slop that he wants.

And we’re all at risk for this. I’m pretty sure I’m being fed fake videos of porch pirates having packages blow up in colourful paint clouds as they try to steal them. It’s entertaining and cathartic but also very likely fake.

But how can we know for sure?

CLAC’s AI team takes cybersecurity seriously. To protect CLAC and its members' data, the IT team trains CLAC staff on how to spot and report suspicious cyber activity. One of the ways that IT does this is by launching its own simulated phishing schemes to catch staff and alert them of the real danger. This teaching tactic has worked on me as I now distrust and doublecheck many of the emails that I receive. In my personal email account, I’ve spotted and reported many real malicious emails.

And I’ll need to continue to be extra diligent as phishing attacks become more advanced and more complex. Everyone from the House of Commons, to Canada’s healthcare, and even Microsoft have been attacked.

Canadian statistics about these attacks are startling. In the first six months of 2024, over 41,000 cybercrimes were reported in Canada. Fifty-six percent of these crimes included fraud. Over 85 percent of Canadian companies were affected by successful cyberattacks in one year. Over 10 percent of Canadian companies hit by ransomware paid the ransom, and the average ransomware hit cost Canadian companies almost $2 million to remedy. And these numbers continue to climb.

Being suspicious of my emails is a good lesson for all of us to actively question what we’re being told. As with onsite construction safety, or medication in a long term care facility, just because someone says that something is safe doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. It’s always best to doublecheck it for yourself.

Taking something for granted, or trusting something just because it sounds good, can lead to disaster.

My word for 2026 is going to be vigilance.

Question Everything

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