Clanker is a slur for robots and artificial intelligence software. The term has been used in ‘Star Wars’ media, first appearing in the franchise’s 2005 video game ‘Star Wars: Republic Commando.’ In 2025, the term became widely used to discuss distaste for machines ranging from delivery robots to large language models. This trend has been attributed to anxiety around the negative societal effects of artificial intelligence.
Whereas AI slop describes low-quality output from artificial intelligence, clanker belittles the underlying robotic systems. While other science fiction media includes pejoratives for robots, such as ‘skinjob’ in ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘toaster’ in ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ clanker is believed to have gained popularity because its usage is intuitive and flexible.
read more »
The Daily Omnivore 