Collins Dictionary's Word Of The Year: 'AI,' With 'Debanking' Earning A Spot On The Shortlist

In 2023, the Collins dictionary, a pioneer in English-language dictionaries, declared “Artificial Intelligence” or “AI” as the top word of the year.

Collins explains AI as a computer program mirroring human thinking. By the end of 2022, AI-based language models were a hot topic in the public eye, according to the dictionary maker.

The firm said AI greatly progressed in 2023 and was a widely-discussed topic. They believe AI to be the upcoming tech revolution.

Alongside AI, Collins showed special attention to the term “digital culture” this year. They featured “de-influencing,” a word about influencers advising followers against specific goods, lifestyle choices, and so on, using their online visibility.

Moreover, two financial terms made the cut for Collins’ Word of the Year. “Debanking” was one. The folks at Collins define it as “taking away a person’s ability to use bank services.”

According to Collins, “debanking” landed on the list when the UK’s populist leader, Nigel Farage, stated that the Coutts bank aimed to shut his account due to his politics. Their take on it was: “The problem got lots of attention. Many folks said they also got debanked, without any reason given.”

Cryptocurrency Clash: Debunking The Debanking Dilemma With AI Insights

Additionally, the cryptocurrency world has continually linked the issue of debanking. Republicans in the US House Financial Committee stated this past April that a strategy seems to be in place to restrict digital asset industry members from holding bank accounts.

Recently, the well-known crypto exchange Binance has faced debanking struggles in Europe. It announced that customers trading euro spot pairs through local bank Paysafe will be unable to do so starting on September 28th.

Furthermore, Collins included the term “greedflation” in its latest shortlisted words. This new coinage combines “greed” and “inflation” and is defined as manipulating prices, attributed to high inflation’s outcome, used as justification to boost unjustifiably high prices to improve commercial profits.

However, the UK-based wordbook stated that the UK’s ongoing life cost problems stem from rising prices. It’s believed that firms are overly increasing their costs for profit gain – a concept termed as “reflation.”

Per the American rates calculator, the country presently battles an increase rate of 3.7%. This is slightly above the anticipated 3.6%, but a significant drop compared to the previous years of 2022 and 2021 with rates of 6.7% and 7%, respectively.

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