I read today on Tagesschau that the Society for the German Language has chosen the term “AI Era” as the Word of the Year 2025. The decision was explained by the fact that artificial intelligence has moved from a purely scientific context into the center of society and is triggering a historical transformation comparable to the Industrial Revolution.
This makes sense. At the same time, the choice of words irritates me. “AI Era” feels like a typical pattern we know from large language models. Terms like this often appear in AI-generated texts. Especially the word “era” seems almost like a recognizable marker of German-language AI style, influenced by translation habits from English that have found their way into our language.
This raises the question of whether, for the first time, we have a Word of the Year that not only describes our time but is itself a product of technological change in language. A term that is meant to mark a turning point, while at the same time already being shaped by the very technology that is creating this moment.
Was this linguistic dimension consciously discussed by the jury? Was “era” chosen simply because it sounds modern and concise, or did the influence of AI-generated language patterns play a role?
Learn more about perception and reality here.
