- cross-posted to:
- artificial_intel@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- artificial_intel@lemmy.ml
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
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Please don’t give this any credit. Nonsense like this is already being used to filter web form submissions for things like job applications.
Source: I applied for a role at a medium-sized company a couple weeks ago and was auto-rejected because my cover letter appeared to be AI-generated. I clicked “back”, removed an em-dash, and the form was accepted.
I’m not going to stop using em dashes. Find a different indicator!
Semicolons are also an indicator. Who the hell uses those?
I use it occasionally, when writing lists with lots of detail, or to separate parts of the sentence where I already used multiple commas.
there are many thought-provoking ideas about conscience, the human brain, and alien life; yet it is wrapped in a mediocre sci-fi action movie script
Same.
- Including anecdotes
- Written in the first person
- Tangents and nonlinear storytelling
Weird that AI can’t handle talking in the first person. Why just the other day I, a human, was saying to my sister, who is also human, about how strange AI is. See, she was grew up in another home with her mother where they didnt use as much technology. We shared a father who fought in Desert Storm. His favorite color was blue, like the kind you see in very thick ice. See most people think ice is just clear, but that is only becuase you need a lot of ice to properly refract light into its true blue color. Refraction works because colors come from different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, and those wavelengths bend at different angles when refracted by passing through transparent materials… what was I saying? Oh yeah, AI is strange.
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.
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.
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.
Although I wonder how long these signs would be that effective for, since they seem really model-specific.
We’re past the point where it’s reasonable to assume ANYTHING viewed onscreen isn’t AI generated. The unending content created with AI will be the final nail in the coffin. The screens have subdued us. Hypnotized us into submission. Shaped everything we know and believe. I could probably list a thousand companies, products, trademarks, and slogans. What a waste of cognitive function.
TIL that following many decades of carefully observed writing best practices makes you an AI.
I thought it would be the semicolon, judging from the thumbnail. Now that would piss me off; I love semicolons, it would be unfair if they become the hallmark of LLMs.
I also appreciate the long dash but on mobile keyboard it’s so awkward to find that nobody uses it for comments anymore.
Personally, I use the em-dash a lot, but I just type it as --.
Fuck — as an designer and typography nerd I just love them em-dashes.
It’s “em dash” and there shouldn’t be spaces around it. FYI.
I‘m German … in German we connect words with small dashes and put spaces around the larger ones … it’s the habit :)
Weird analogies and similes
Well, guess I’m half AI or, to put it another way, I’m similar to a machine that’s being frequently affected by cosmic rays when doing calculations
Welp, TIL that I’m a LLM. I frequently use at like 75% of those in my creative writing. I learned to use all of these by reading books.
Well, so did LLMs haha
