What does Clanker mean? Origin explored amid mass usage on TikTok

The term clanker is quickly spreading on social media as netizens are using the word to express their displeasure with robots in general. Numerous TikTok videos on clankers are gaining millions of views.

The term was initially targeted towards robots. However, it is now used as a slur towards online AI bots, or robots that operate on artificial intelligence.

According to Know Your Meme, the term clanker was first used in the 2005 game Star Wars: Republic Commando. Then it was used in the 2008 animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The word gained popularity in the Star Wars community as fans used it often in related subreddits.

Clanker gained popularity on TikTok in June 2025, after the user @texantrooper recreated the JetBlue Burger King Racist meme with a stormtrooper.

For the unversed, in October 2020, a man on a JetBlue flight went viral for shouting racial profanities at another passenger.

More content creators joined the trend and started making videos on robots. TikTokers @nicoholm13, @budgetlift_bros, @vibestealer, and @lickinallonmyhomi, among others, created videos mocking AI bots, which garnered millions of views.

Netizens mock bots, joking about a fictional distant future where robots are an integral part of life.

Me when I encounter a clanker pic.twitter.com/k8172Yuy80

— clanker Hater (@anticlankers) July 30, 2025

Linguist Adam Aleksic on the use of the term clanker

Adam Aleksic, the 24-year-old linguist and content creator, makes videos on the evolving vocabulary and the effect social media has on it. He has over 700,000 followers on TikTok and 1.5 million followers on Instagram. Aleksic is also the author of the book, ALGOSPEAK.

Adam Aleksic told NBC News on August 5, 2025, that the term clanker and its growing popularity were due to people's displeasure with the advancing technology.

He also noted that "anthropomorphizing and personifying" robots and calling them a slur was similar to how some people use racial slurs.

"What we're doing is we're anthropomorphizing and personifying and simplifying the concept of an AI, reducing it into an analogy of a human and kind of playing into the same tropes. Naturally, when we trend in that direction, it does play into those tropes of how people have treated marginalized communities before," the linguist stated.

Adam Aleksic told NPR that the surge of the term clanker is directly connected to people losing their jobs due to the artificial intelligence boom. He claimed that the disdain in the younger generation is expressed through the content they make on TikTok.

"We have a social need right now to respond to the proliferation of AI, especially when AI is taking human jobs, especially when they're replacing online creators," he stated.

According to CNN's July 21, 2025, report, numerous companies, including JP Morgan and Amazon, have shared that AI is actively replacing humans. The AI startup, Anthropic PBC's CEO Dario Amodei, told the media outlet that within one to five years, unemployment would increase up to 20%, and white collar jobs would be affected first.

However, some tech companies, such as Google DeepMind and Nvidia, have told the media outlet that unemployment due to AI is one of the "minor concerns."