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AI & tech-bro slang
The post-ChatGPT tech industry moves fast enough that its vocabulary turns over every six months. Some of these terms are precise technical jargon (RAG, hallucination, prompt-injection); some are joke-words minted on Hacker News and X that escaped into wider use (vibe coding, AI slop, brainrot).
This is Slangora's catalogue of AI and tech-bro slang from roughly 2022 onward. It captures both the serious (engineering shorthand) and the satirical (the meme-vocabulary critiquing the same engineering).
The AI lexicon · 69 terms
vibe coding
vaɪb ˈkoʊd.ɪŋ
🚀 Emerging / Viral
AI slop
eɪ.aɪ slɒp
🚀 Emerging / Viral
RAG
/ræɡ/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
prompt injection
prɒmpt ɪnˈdʒek.ʃən
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
brainrot
ˈbreɪn.rɒt
🔥 Gen Z & TikTok
A2A
ˌeɪ.tuːˈeɪ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
agentic
eɪˈdʒen.tɪk
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
AI-native
eɪ.aɪ ˈneɪ.tɪv
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
API
/eɪ.piː.aɪ/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
bikeshedding
ˈbaɪk.ʃed.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
chain of thought
tʃeɪn əv θɔːt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
clanker
/klæŋkər/
🚀 Emerging / Viral
Claude Code
klɔːd koʊd
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
context collapse
ˈkɒn.tekst kəˈlæps
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
context rot
ˈkɒn.tekst rɒt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
context window
ˈkɒn.tekst ˈwɪn.doʊ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
copilot
ˈkoʊ.paɪ.lət
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
CORS
/kɔːrz/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
deepfake
ˈdiːp.feɪk
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
diffusion model
dɪˈfjuː.ʒən ˈmɒd.əl
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
distillation
ˌdɪs.tɪˈleɪ.ʃən
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
embedding
ɪmˈbed.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
eval
iːˈvæl
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
evals
iːˈvælz
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
few-shot
fjuː ʃɒt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
fine-tune
faɪn tjuːn
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
fine-tuning
faɪn ˈtjuːn.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
foundation model
faʊnˈdeɪ.ʃən ˈmɒd.əl
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
git gud
ɡɪt ɡʌd
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
glazing (AI)
ˈɡleɪ.zɪŋ
🚀 Emerging / Viral
grounding
ˈɡraʊn.dɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
guardrails
ˈɡɑːd.reɪlz
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
hallucinate up
həˈluː.sɪ.neɪt ʌp
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
hallucination
/həˌluːsɪˈneɪʃən/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
hot-swap
hɒt swɒp
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
inference
ˈɪn.fər.əns
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
jailbreak
ˈdʒeɪl.breɪk
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
knowledge cutoff
ˈnɒl.ɪdʒ ˈkʌt.ɒf
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
latency
ˈleɪ.tən.si
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
LGTM
ˌel.dʒiː.tiːˈem
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
LLM
ˌel.elˈem
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
LLM wrapper
ˌel.elˈem ˈræp.ər
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
MCP
/ɛmˈsiːpiː/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
model collapse
ˈmɒd.əl kəˈlæps
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
MoE
/moʊ/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
multi-agent
ˈmʌl.ti ˈeɪ.dʒənt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
MVP
ˌem.viːˈpiː
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
prompt engineering
prɒmpt ˌen.dʒəˈnɪər.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
quantization
ˌkwɒn.taɪˈzeɪ.ʃən
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
rate limit
reɪt ˈlɪm.ɪt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
reasoning model
ˈriː.zən.ɪŋ ˈmɒd.əl
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
rubber ducking
ˈrʌb.ər ˈdʌk.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
ship it
ʃɪp ɪt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
skill issue
skɪl ˈɪʃ.uː
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
SLM
ˌes.elˈem
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
slop
slɒp
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
SOTA
/ˈsoʊ.tə/
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
superintelligence
ˌsuː.pər.ɪnˈtel.ɪ.dʒəns
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
system prompt
ˈsɪs.təm prɒmpt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
tech debt
tek det
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
temperature
ˈtem.prə.tʃər
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
test-time compute
test taɪm kəmˈpjuːt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
token
ˈtoʊ.kən
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
tool calling
tuːl ˈkɔːl.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
tool use
tuːl juːs
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
vector DB
ˈvek.tər ˌdiːˈbiː
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
world model
wɜːld ˈmɒd.əl
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
yak shaving
jæk ˈʃeɪv.ɪŋ
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
zero-shot
ˈzɪə.roʊ ʃɒt
⚡ Tech, Dev & AI
Bottom line
Half this vocabulary is real terminology being born in real time. The other half is the discourse making fun of the first half. Both belong in the dictionary.
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