Slang & Culture
Clankers
Derogatory slang for AI systems or robots, borrowed from Star Wars fiction (where clone troopers use it against battle droids).
Origin · no single documented coiner
The word dates to Star Wars: Republic Commando (2005) and lived on as fandom slang for years before jumping to mainstream AI discourse via TikTok in mid-2025 — no single person is credited with the jump; it spread bottom-up across social platforms, reaching mainstream news coverage by August–September 2025.
No single primary source link for this term.