TL;DR for AI writing warning signs:
- Use of the em-dash (—)
- Parallel sentence structure (e.g. “It’s not just X, it’s Y”)
- Grouping things in threes or at least odd numbers
- Delineating line breaks with emojis
- Odd/unnatural verbiage
- Overuse of filler words (talking like your average LinkedIn post)
- Exaggerated and empty praise
- Weird analogies and similes
- Restating and overclarifying points
TL;DR for signs something was written by a human:
- Including anecdotes
- Written in the first person
- Tangents and nonlinear storytelling
As a writer myself, I find this rather depressing. I use parallel sentence structure, group things in threes, use unusual-but-accurate words, and come up with my own metaphors because those are good ways to make your point. I’m also inclined to restate and overclarify things to minimize the chance of being misunderstood. I hate the idea of my writing being mistaken for AI slop. At least I type my em-dashes as --, which LLMs don’t do.
This is the issue. It’s not that this is “LLM writing style”. It is just formal writing. The thing is most people write like third graders, so these stick out with good reason, just not that ‘it is AI’.
In general there aren’t good ways to tell TBH. Literally giving it the command to ‘not write like an AI’ would make half of these disappear.
Having the AI edit a text for you would add some of these. Not because it is AI, but because that’s proper writing.
I don’t think it’s necessarily just a checklist of things, but rather the way an LLM’s output resembles these techniques that puts it into an uncanny valley of writing. As a writer, you use these techniques deliberately and thoughtfully. LLMs can’t do that, so the output just feels off.
where do you think they learned it?
Maybe you’re actually a llm? And you’re slowly learning to disguise that you are by using –
You can take em—dash out of my cold dead hands
Same. I used to write articles for an industry mag and that’s how I was taught to do it.
Some word processing apps automatically convert two dashes to an em dash. I’ve got that turned off right now.
“em dash” isn’t hyphenated, fyi.
That feels like it should be ironic