clanker

[klangk-er]

noun

plural

clankers 

1. Slang.,  a robot, chatbot, or AI app (often derogatory).

2. Slang.,  any piece of technology that is old, worthless, or in poor condition.

3. Slang.,  a lie or fib.

4. Slang.,  a flop or failure.

Example Sentences

You may have run across the new “slur” making the rounds online, and in middle school lunchrooms: clanker.

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Since they can’t, clanker is basically an insult that punches at nothing, perhaps the least-effective slur in history.

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The term, for all its silliness, has inspired a sort of spinoff—“clanker lover”—which, in theory, should carry more of a sting, since it’s aimed at actual humans.

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While it might have stung for a second, the term got immediately turned on its head: People started tagging themselves “clanker lovers” and members of the “Clanker Crew,” joking about being “proud cogsuckers,” and daydreaming about making their own custom T-shirts.

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Other memes leaned into community building: One posted a ChatGPT generated image on Reddit showing a wholesome pastoral scene of a woman with her A.I. beau, beaming in a “Clanker Lover” T-shirt; another features a maniacally grinning man and his devilish A.I. companion proudly hugging, holding a sign reading, “I clanked my clanker.”

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