How to Spot AI Writing: A Human’s Guide to Recognizing ChatGPT-Generated Content | Kasia Pilch | Skillshare

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How to Spot AI Writing: A Human’s Guide to Recognizing ChatGPT-Generated Content

teacher avatar Kasia Pilch, Online Strategist & Marketing Specialist

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Intro

      2:05

    • 2.

      Class Project

      1:29

    • 3.

      Why Should We Care About Knowing What’s AI-Generated Content and What’s Not?

      16:06

    • 4.

      How AI-Written Text Stands Out

      5:51

    • 5.

      The “Ask-Then-Answer” Pattern

      2:33

    • 6.

      The Storytelling Gap in AI Writing. No Personal Anecdotes (or Super Weird Fake Ones).

      5:42

    • 7.

      AI’s Obsession with Transition Words

      1:43

    • 8.

      The Confidence of AI. ChatGPT Doesn’t Hesitate

      2:28

    • 9.

      Repetitive Phrasing

      2:07

    • 10.

      Unnatural Emotional Tone

      3:37

    • 11.

      Look at Sentences’ Length

      3:27

    • 12.

      AI and the Em Dash Habit. Does the Em Dash Give ChatGPT Away?

      7:08

    • 13.

      The Other Patterns That Caught My Eye

      10:30

    • 14.

      AI’s Favorite Words (and How to Catch Them)

      21:26

    • 15.

      AI Detectors

      6:51

    • 16.

      How to Make AI Writing Feel More Human? How to Trick Everyone Into Thinking You Wrote It?

      6:55

    • 17.

      Final Words and My Question to You

      1:51

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About This Class

This is a short course I’m sure everyone needs right now. We’re already deep in the era of AI-generated everything 👁️

AI can write a lot these days: essays, articles, Instagram captions, even books that hit the BESTSELLER LISTS... Sometimes it’s impressive, sometimes it’s bland, but either way it’s getting harder to tell what’s written by a real person and what’s copy-pasted from ChatGPT.

That’s exactly what this course is about: learning how to NOTICE and RECOGNIZE. Not to judge, not to call anyone out, but to train your brain to pick up on the little signals that give AI away. I have to warn you: once you see them, you can’t unsee them :)

I’ll show you the patterns, the “too-perfect” phrasing, the overuse of certain words and writing manners. By the end, you’ll be able to do a quick vibe check on ANYTHING you read and know whether it feels human, or not.

This isn’t a detective game (though absolutely yes, it is kind of addictive). It’s a VERY useful skill for anyone who cares about words, trust, and being able to tell when a piece of writing actually comes from someone’s real experience.

And here’s the fun fact: I actually work with AI every day. I know the advanced prompting techniques and tricks, and I decided to use that insider knowledge to show you how to spot the patterns from the other side.

🔎 Who is this course for?

  • Teachers, editors, and managers who NEED to know when AI sneaks into assignments or cover letters

  • Writers, marketers, and content creators who don’t want their work to “sound AI”

  • Curious readers who keep asking, “Wait, wait, wait… did this author actually write this?”

  • Anyone who just wants to sharpen their awareness without becoming an AI cop

🔬 What you’ll learn?

  • The tell-tale patterns of AI writing (and why they show up everywhere)

  • Words and phrases that instantly give off AI and ChatGPT vibes

  • How to tell the difference between polished-but-human vs. AI-generic writing

  • Why AI detectors detectors often fail and what actually works instead

  • Simple tricks to make your own AI-assisted writing sound more natural

  • A practical “vibe scan” you can run on any text in seconds

Meet Your Teacher

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Kasia Pilch

Online Strategist & Marketing Specialist

Top Teacher

I'm Kasia. Kasia Pilch. Oolong tea addict and the woman who deeply believes in her (even the craziest!) dreams.

For almost 10 years, my career as a marketing specialist, online strategist and creative director has given me the fulfillment to be able to help other ambitious people in simple ways using the advantage of my abilities and work experience.

I'm here to serve people with BIG DREAMS.

I've joined Skillshare to help you step into your full potential and elevate to the dream level in all areas of your life (not only those connected with your career). To discover your purpose, your mission, your creativity, and create a life that you can't wait to wake up to.

To focus on the right things to grow your business and online presence without... See full profile

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Transcripts

1. Intro: We are reaching a point where AI can write almost anything, emails, articles, wedding cows, and they're not bad. In fact, sometimes they are really good. But that's exactly the problem because once AI can mimic us, we stop being so sure who is speaking. We start second guessing almost everything. Review honest? Was this speech heart felt? Was this essay from a student or from their ChatGPT? When that line blurs, our relationship with content and each other shift. And if we want to stay around it, we have to learn to notice, not to judge, but to stay more aware. For some people, spotting AI content is just a fun game. Like, was this Substack post written by a person or by their ChatGPT? And that's fair. It's a little addictive once you start noticing the patterns, to be honest. But for others, teachers, marketers, editors, people in HR, talent managers, this isn't just a game it's kind of a big deal. I know advanced prompting techniques and the ins and outs of prompting engineering. So I figure out I use that knowledge for a good cause. So whether you are TI or fully obsessed with it, I want to show you how to tell the difference between AI generated content and something made created entirely without it. I will walk you through a bunch of unusual signs and little patterns I've picked up over the past months and actually years of noticing these patterns and working with AI. The kind of patterns that don't show up in AI detection tools. But once you spot them, you can't unsee them. I will spill the tea. So let's go. 2. Class Project: Last project. I want this course to sharpen your attention and train your pattern spotting radar, not so you can go around judging or criticizing people for using AI, because honestly, we are all just trying to make our lives a little easier and life gets tough. But so you know, so you can recognize the signs and patterns, and you are more aware. For your project, I'd love you to share a screenshot of a personal note, just the note where you've written down a sentence you suspect was written by AI. Drop it into the class project section so I can see it. A few guidelines. Don't share screenshots of websites, articles, or posts because we are not here to shame anyone. Copy one sentence into your own notes and upload it. If you'd like, you can also describe the article 0R post in your own words and tell me what triggered your suspicion without quoting it directly. So tell me what made that little voice in your head go. I think TAGPT helped write this one. So, that's your class project. And now let's dive in. Let me walk you through all the patterns I picked up from months or years of working with AI. 3. Why Should We Care About Knowing What’s AI-Generated Content and What’s Not?: Why should we care about knowing what's AI generated content and what's not? FGPT recently passed the Turing test, which basically means the line between what's AI generated and what's purely human made is getting more difficult to spot now. I've been deep in the space since the very very beginning and I'm constantly tracking patterns in what AI generates. Yes, even with the most advanced prompting techniques. I use AI in my day to day work too, we integrate AI into the tools, streamline processes with it. All of that. But personally, after hours, I love reading substack essays and posts where I know really know, they come straight from someone's heart and someone's real experiences, not the result of a five line TGPTPmpt or the most advanced prompting technique. But to be honest, every day, we all consume a lot of AI generated content without realizing it. Yes, every day. You probably and I can skip the word probably because I'm sure of it. You consume a lot of AI generated content without realizing it. That tweet that went viral could have been written by Claude. The job ad that felt oddly polished, passively ChatGPT that heartfelt post about burnout, unfortunately might be a polished ChatGPT draft. It's not about pointing fingers because people use tools. That's what they are for. That's totally fine. But when we stop noticing, we stop questioning and when we stop questioning, it becomes easier for fake sincerity, for very fake sincerity to pass as truth. It matters. Says something, not just what is said, because context always adds weight. I believe authorship still carries meaning because not everything that sounds right or sounds legit is right and we can't afford to be passive readers anymore. I think and I hope you will find this course useful in more ways than just one because it's not about spotting AI generated content for fun. It's about becoming more and more aware as a reader. You can tell when a piece of writing has that ChatGPT touch. Maybe that will be helpful in your job. Like when someone handed something that really should have been written by them, not by ChatGPT maybe you are a writer yourself and you just want to avoid raising any red flags that you work was AI generated. For me, it also got personal lately because there is this one substack writer I love. I really adore her. I even pay for her newsletter. I'm one of just a few paying subscribers because that newsletter isn't big yet. I've been a loyal paying reader for months. One day, I asked her a question about one of her paid city guides and the reply she sent surprised me a bit because it was totally AI, like unmistakably written by ChatGPT be honest, it broke my heart a little. It makes you wonder if sometimes not knowing would be easier, right? But no, I really do believe it's always better to know because awareness helps us take grounded and it helps us see the reality around us more clearly and we are more observants. By the way, did you hear that headline recently? Apparently, 10% of the top performing Substack newsletters are written by AI. There is also the official survey conducted by Substack itself. Substack said that in a survey of over 2000 subtckers 45% said they are using AI. I'm showing you the address to the report, so you can read it later to dive deeper into the topic. The report clearly shows that many successful substackers use AI also for brainstorming and research. In the report, you can also analyze interesting tendencies. What age are the people who use AI for their Substack newsletters and what kind of content they create with it. Which stinks a bit because soapstock is supposed to be the place for conscious thoughtful writing, a return to real voices, a place for honest writing. And that's just one reason. It's worth learning how to tell human writing apart from AI generated content, but there are many more. It messes with trust. Have you ever read something and feel like it should move you, but it just doesn't. Like the article 0R the post is trying really hard to sound smart or smart deep or poetic, but something is just off. As you can clearly see in this example, the text tries really hard to sound emotional to awaken emotions in us. But when you read it, you can quickly realize it, it just feels blend and it relies on generalization and cliche things we all know too well, and it's only surface level. Even though the text is quite short, there are already so many red flocks. Unfortunately, that's often AI because it mimics tone, structure, even charm. But as you know, AI can't feel anything. And when readers sense that disconnect, they don't just feel disappointed, I think. They often feel tricked because trust isn't built on perfect sentences. Sometimes I don't know about you, but I think it happens very often for me. I catch myself wondering why a certain article 0R certain post didn't move me, why it fell flat emotionally, even though it should have hit home. And I used to blame myself for becoming numb. I just don't appreciate the written word anymore. But unfortunately, it's not me, it's not us. It's just that the writing didn't land because it wasn't emotional, honest writing. It was generated. And that subtle lack of emotional depth, that weird disconnect, then it makes total sense. And when we know what's AI generated and what's not, we can make more intentional choices. We can give our time, attention, and even money, for example, when it comes to substack newsletters to creators who aren't churning out 100 posts a night with a few prompts. We can support the ones who put their heart in creating a blog, newsletter and Instagram profile or who put their heart into writing essays, for example, who have something to say, academic integrity, is TGT, the problem. I really feel for teachers these days. You as a teacher assign a reflective essay, and your student hands in something that they've spent too minute generating and they the clay, they think, that's it. I've done my homework. And you are thinking, Okay, when you are reading the essay, either this 19-year-old suddenly developed a PhD level knowledge of postmodernism they outsource it to charge the PT. And you're not wrong for wondering I think students aren't trying to be evil. They are just trying to survive in a system that rewards output over process. But still, it's a problem, not because of grades, but because we are outsourcing the heart messy, important work or forming our own thoughts. I'm really a little bit afraid of our brains because when we outsource everything, our brains become lazy and sometimes we just forget how to do the work ourselves. As you know, I'm really into technological development and I work with AI on daily basis, but we can't close our eyes to the downside. If society uses AI for everything and it replaces our thinking and communication skills, could lead to the dumping down of humanity, unfortunately, the newest research always proves it if we can't express our thoughts and ourselves without the help of AI. We don't use our cognitive functions to construct sentences. These brain functions will atrophy, and the current state of the human brain already isn't perfect. You know how short our attention span is. SEO and search rankings. Let's talk about Google and other search engines. The Internet is drowning in content that all sounds almost the same. Here's what search engines rules are starting to say. If you must produce less content, just to climb the rankings, we are going to notice and you're going to sync with your content. Whether that's true or just a gentle threat, I don't know. But I do know this. The Internet is loud and people crave meaningful and unique articles, not this noise that sounds all the same. AI alone, I think it is very often a noise because people are generating articles that sound very similar and they don't use advanced prompting, so the articles are very, very simple. Of course, they are simple, but they use this polished pattern matching language. They are incredibly boring. But because there is just so much of this blend SEO optimized content out there, it's getting harder and harder to even find something different, something that really stands out, something that actually feels worth your time. It's a little bit like searching for a real voice and a sea of recycled praising and polished nothingness. You scroll and scroll hoping to stumble across something that just hits the deeper misinformation and confident nonsense. This is the one that really makes me sad when I think about it because AI doesn't lie on purpose. It just doesn't know the difference. It hallucinates facts like confidently claiming the Eifel Tower is in Barcelona from time to time or that vitamin C cures loneliness. Here is the most scary part. It does it incredibly convincingly with citations and food notes sometimes and that smug academic tone. If you're not double checking, it's way easy to walk away believing something totally false, just because it sounded polished. Of course, serious hallucinations don't happen constantly, but they are showing up more often lately, especially with how over trained some of the newer models are. That's where things get really risky because people are publishing millions of AI assisted articles that repeat the same unchecked info, simply because they don't have time or energy to fact check, which means a whole lot of misinformation is quietly spreading across the web. It's about more than just spotting AI. Because this isn't about becoming a grammar detective. This course isn't about becoming a grammar detective. It's not about tracking every like a red flag, even though I will admit I unfortunately do that sometimes, it's about asking better questions. Are we still thinking for ourselves? Are we still listening for the sound of a real voice behind the screen and whose work are we really reading? Are we okay letting AI imitate us so well that we forget how to recognize real futs? Because I think real writing still has so much power over the AI generated content. Though, yes, I work with AI and I teach classes, how to use advanced prompting techniques, but the real writing is something I truly enjoy after hours and I'm not ashamed to admit that. I remember reading an Airbnb review once that almost made me cry, which is also a little bit shameful to admit in the course. But it almost made me cry not because the host of the place. I also stated that place was amazing, or the place had surprisingly soft towels, though it did. But because the way these guests described their stay and I couldn't agree more with them because they didn't just say it was cozy and clean. They wrote about arriving late at night after a long travel day and how the host had left them handwritten note with a peppermint tea bag taped to the corner. This review was very specific. It was very vulnerable and tender and it just felt like a little window into someone else's brain. And real memories. And I remember thinking after reading it. Yes. Finally, this was definitely written by e person, not because it was perfect, because it wasn't. It was messy, but it was imperfect in all the right ways in all the right ways we crave now in the young era. For example, messy punctuation. You know, I was just like someone was thinking out loud. There was this warm the phrasing that you just can't get from AI that never felt that way. That's the humanness we are looking for now in the AI era. These days, I read something with perfect rhythm, clever metaphors, a few too many dashes and unfortunately, I feel suspicious. It's like my brain plays a game of spoil the AI, not because I hate AI because you already know I absolutely don't use it all the time. But I really think identifying AI content matters, not because we want to go backwards because I believe and I truly hope AI will change the world for better and I don't want to feel scared. I know there are so many, so many dangers, but I want to feel hopeful, even though I'm really aware of the good size and the bad size. I really think it helps a lot in medicine and it will save so many lives that way. That's the positive side I want to focus on. But back to identifying written content generated by AI, I just don't want to lose what's human on the way forward. So we are not here to bash a eye because I think we are frilled and we are lucky to witness it develop. But something in me, and I think you will agree, something in me still wants to feel like a person is talking to me when they write, not a father, not a eye. I really like to know how to distinguish when it happens, and I really want to show you how to do. 4. How AI-Written Text Stands Out: How AI written text stands out. Sometimes, I think many times I read something online and I instantly get that weird how to describe feeling like biting into a croisst that looks golden and flaky, but somehow tastes really bad a second after. You have big expectation and it looks really perfect. But then you discover it just pretends to be a perfect crosst. The content isn't bad exactly. It's just blanched too clean. Too perfect. And when I talk with my colleagues and with my clients, they say that that's what AI writing often feels like. You can't always explain it. But somehow sometimes you got to knows. How exactly do you tell? Let's break it down, but not like AI would with bullet points and perfect logic. But just like curious human with a little t to spill, the sentences feel and ***** too perfect. Have you ever read something that sounds fine? Like grammatically. Yes, yes, it checks out, but emotionally. It's as exciting as reading shampoo instructions. Unfortunately, that's often AI because it's Polish liner balanced and predictable in its rhythm. It doesn't manger on or contradict itself. Let me show you what I mean. A real person might write. I was going to tell you about how I first spotted AI text, but honestly, there is so much to discuss I don't even know where to start. Now compare that to NAI version. AI generated content is typically easy to detect due to its structured and balanced nature. I mean, that's technically accurate, but it's also a little bit dead behind the eyes and very polite. That's because AI loves structure and it loves balanced sentences. Grammar that follows the rules so closely, it feels like it's trying to get extra credit for it. But what AI doesn't do AI doesn't start a sentence, then abandon it halfway, then back around it because it remembers something like this. I was going to tell you about how to spot AI writing, but then my mind jumped back to this one Substack post I read last week. It was about vulnerability, but halfway through, I realized, wait. This person doesn't actually feel anything. They are just pretending. AI doesn't do that. It doesn't jump drugs or have mid sentence self doubt. It stays on script like a student trying to impress a strict professor. When it comes to real human writings, I really think it wonders, it pauses, and then it spirals. Weirdly that's exactly what makes it so charming. I think it's funny, isn't it? The very things we were once told not to do in school starting a sentence with batch or dropping into the middle of a thought are now signs that something was written by a real person because that's how we talk in real life, don't we? The most engaging writing, I believe it mimics how we speak. For example, when I'm creating scripts for my courses, I was listening and I was watching my courses from some time ago when I wasn't feeling so confident in front of camera. I noticed such big difference between how I was behaving then and how I'm behaving now, and of course, it made me a little bit proud of myself. But in the past, I scripted almost everything because I wanted to feel confident, I wanted to feel more sure, what I will talk, that I won't lose the sense of what I want to say. But now I script just the most important parts, the highlights. So I can the order of the things I want to tell you about. But I just prefer to listen to people talking the way they really talk. When I, for example, watch other teachers courses, I really appreciate if they talk to me the way they will talk to a friend, not when they write this script, for example, AI means artificial intelligence. No, I want to hear it in your own words, you would describe it to a friend. I think that's exactly the same with good writing. We can imagine this author. Telling it all loud and it wouldn't feel superficial. It wouldn't feel weird because that's the way they talk. I think that's why this kind of writing just flows better and that's why it feels so human. To show you that in practice, to give you good examples of this, I have prepared a few side by side conferences of how people tend to write versus how AI would phrase that. I want you to notice the difference in tone, rhythm, and vibe and tell me if you notice it. And let me know in the discussion section how you feel about that difference and if it's very visible to you or maybe not yet. 5. The “Ask-Then-Answer” Pattern: The ask and answer pattern. You've definitely seen this one. It goes like, are you looking to build your brand, wondering how to stand out in a crowded market? The answer lies in your authentic self. I feel like it's the digital equivalent of those self help books that keep asking rhetorical questions to make you feel engaged, but never actually go anywhere surprising. Because humans when we ask questions, we don't always answer them neatly. Sometimes we ask questions because we are actually wondering in that moment. Like do I even have a personal brand? I mean, I run a personal block and I wear the same white shirts for days. Maybe that's a good start. Do you see the difference? One is a polished pitch. The other is a real person thinking in real time. Another example, want to improve your productivity, the answer lies in time block. And this is AI's favorite way to sound useful without actually offering anything personal. Now let's humanize it because a real person might say, Look, I've tried every productivity trick in the book. So helped. Some made me cry into my Google sheet. But the only thing that's ever really stuck blocking up to ours. Do you see the difference? Do you see that one is strength to teach, and the other one strength to connect? Below are a few real life comparisons side by side showing you how human wrote it. Versus how AI typically leans into this ask and answer pattern. I really want you to notice how the human version often sounds more casual, more unfinished while the AI version goes straight into tidy answers, tidy reasons structured logic, and unfortunately a very predictable flow because that's the thing with AI. It doesn't just ask questions. I also answers them too neatly many times. Take a look. Okay. 6. The Storytelling Gap in AI Writing. No Personal Anecdotes (or Super Weird Fake Ones). : No personal anecdotes or super weird fake ones. Okay, it isn't a surprise, but AI has no personal life. It doesn't miss its hometown or get nervous on first dates or remember the smell of its grandmas, apple pie in October. It doesn't know your old work stories, the tiny detail of every heartbreak, or that one joke your uncle tells at every family gathering. Even if you pasted all your journals and all your personal diaries into a prompt, there would still be a gap. Because memory isn't just data, isn't just raw data, unfortunately, AI doesn't live through anything, so it doesn't have anything to relate to. Even when it tries to tell a story, after a while, it feels off because it just can't relate to the real emotions. Sometimes it tries, and the results are really funny, but something feels off. Like I once found myself facing a difficult situation that tested my patience and resilience. As you can see, it sounds very vague, very over polished and it sounds like a high school essay. There is no real setting, no real moment or the human messiness or any fic details. It could happen to anyone or no one and that's the worst. There was a time when I experienced failure and it taught me an important lesson. I think it feels very generic and even though yeah, we all have failures and we all try to earn a lesson from them, but anyway feels emotionally distant and as I said before, very generic because this sentence already skips the details and jumps right to the moral like a fable. Back in 2017, I encountered a unique opportunity that allowed me to grow both personally and professionally. And this is where AI loves mixing time stems with basswood grow personally and professionally. And it unfortunately sounds like linked in not life. I remember walking into the room, hot pounding, uncertain of what would happen next. This one tries to be cinematic but still feels copy paste. AI often uses this vague suspense structure to fake depth. But when you look closely at it, there is no depth. During my college years, I faced various challenges that help shape who I am today. It also sounds really generic, no scene, no specificity, just a timeline, and that's what AI very often does and then it tells you a story that is very generic. A fun fact. One rainy afternoon as I simmed my coffee and reflected on life, that's a fragment of a longer thing TGPT generated, and I have to tell you when AI tries to sound poetic, and often reaches for cliches like rain, coffee, and reflection. But there is no real thought or surprise beneath it because a real person might say, the first time I pitched my startup idea, I was sweating so hard, I almost short circuit my laptop. I tried to look confident while silently praying my voice wouldn't crack when I said synergy. I hate that feeling. Do you see the difference. Stories rooted in awkward, vulnerable, only specific truths sound more natural because they are more human stories that sound like they were pulled from an airport business magazine. Probably they are AI generated because humans are walking story machines. We can't help it. We narrate everything from the way we still copy on ourselves before a job interview. That one stranger told us we look like someone who reads poetry or someone who reads Harokimurakab. AI doesn't have that. So even when it tries to fake a story, it sounds very often like this. One time I was nervous before a presentation, but I use breathing techniques to stay calm. And that's cool, but that could be anyone. That's very, very generic. Now imagine this version. I once walked into a meeting with a piece of spinach stuck between my front teeth and pitched an idea about mindfulness while feeling anything but mindful. So yeah, breathing helps, I guess, but flossing first would help me more. And what's your verdict? I think we agree that's much more human because it's weird, it's a little bit embarrassing and it's actually lived. So for me personally, the big red flag that something might be generated is writing without context because I can generate words endlessly, but the text just doesn't go deeper. It doesn't include advanced storytelling and relies on generalizations and cliches. And when you read it, as you go on, it's very, very surface level and just locks natural variation as the text continues. 7. AI’s Obsession with Transition Words: Transition word addiction. AI loves transitions like moreover, in contrast to summarize, therefore, which is a little bit funny or even hilarious because when was the last time you said, moreover, out loud in a casual conversation? I think human writing sounds more like and here is the weed part. So basically, anyway, where was I? Because we talk like we are trying to catch a friend up over a coffee, not submit a dissertation to the Queen. And AI hasn't quite caught up to that yet. Moreover, for them all in conclusion, consequently, my brain shuts off the second, I see this in casual writing because we just don't talk like this. If I texted my friend, food them all, your outfit is cute. She'd think I was having a fever because human writing sounds like also your outfit today girl unreal. You are giving the main character energy, for example. Even when we write formally, there is usually some rhythm variation, a pause. Anyway, moment and AI doesn't do that. Yet. It's like it has been trained on the most polite part of the world writing or the most polite part of Wikipedia, even when we prompted not to use that kind of writing style. It's always more polite than it should be and more polite than we are in real life, than most of us. 8. The Confidence of AI. ChatGPT Doesn’t Hesitate: I doesn't hesitate. When I'm writing something honest, I almost always pass halfway through a sentence and rethink the word I used. Sometimes I even talk to myself out loud like a little weirdo, for example, is chaotic energy a little bit too much in that sentence or does it sound okay? AI doesn't do this. Here's a little secret, at least it's my personal opinion. Good writing is often filled with uncertainty, not in the message, but in the voice. You can feel when someone is thinking on the page. They kind quiet, very internal tug of war. A guy skips that part. It always sounds so sure of itself, even when it's wrong. We as humans, we hesitate. We say things like, I don't know if this will make sense, but maybe it's just me, but, hear me out. The little wobbles on the good stuff. That's what makes it feel like someone is actually there, figuring it all out with you. And most of the time AI is super confident of the things it generates. Like, it's the confidence that is always a little bit frustrating and it can get on your nerves. Also notice that at this point, AI isn't very good. I yes no responses. It always makes them longer than the used to be. Like AI wants to be super proactive in army with this extra knowledge and extra insights. But in real life, we didn't talk or write like this before because real humans, we don't want to mention so many facts in every answer possible. I completely agree with Joshua here. You can easily recognize when someone use HGPT or other large language model when answering because of formatting and the fact that the answer is like a mini essay. People weren't writing like this before AI. Also, these responses often follow a header subheader bullet points formatting style. 9. Repetitive Phrasing : Repetitive phrasing. There are moments when I'm reading a paragraph and suddenly I realize I'm stuck in a loop because the writing keeps repeating itself, not in a dramatic slow build way, but more like someone copy pasted the same sentence three times and just change a word or two or told GPT to rephrase it many times. Communication is key relationships. Without good communication relationships can struggle. That's why improving communication is essential to any relationship. This is being told the same thing three ways, but never deeper than surface level. It's also giving high school essay with a word count to it. The future of work is changing. As work changes, the workplace must adapt. Adapting to the future of work is now a top priority. You read this and think, cool, but when will you say anything more specific? Something a little bit more original. Here's the thing. We humans, we usually know this when we are starting to repeat ourselves. We get bored reading our own work aloud. We stop and think, Wait, didn't I just say that? And we will find a better way to say it or at least break the rhythm a bit. I doesn't have that inner editor. It doesn't feel that when it repeats the same phrase again, so it doesn't fix it. So what to look for? The same phrase, appearing twice in one paragraph. A sentence that is just a reworded version of the one above it or the one in the previous paragraph, no emotional or narrative progression. When you read it, it's like walking in a circle. When I spot it, I immediately pause and think, this doesn't sound like someone who had a thought. This sounds like something feeling space and I hate this feeling and I hate thinking that, to be honest. 10. Unnatural Emotional Tone: Natural emotional tone. This one is tricky because at first glance, it might sound inspiring. You know, those lines that feel like they belong on a tech companies about us page. They sound so grand. Like those old Miss Universe speeches packed with big fancy words, no one really uses in everyday life or one you last saw in a textbook back in college. Of lofty phrases and word pairing that feel vge. It all sounds polish and elegant. So. But hey, what was the writer actually trying to say? In the depths of uncertainty, we find the courage to unlock innovations through potential. Yeah, it feels like it belongs in a movie trailer about corporate brainstorming. But most people don't talk about product death this dramatically. I was deeply moved by the transformative power of spreadsheets and the clarity they bring to daily operations. Okay, call down AI. You talk about Excel. It's super helpful, but not exactly so spiritual awakening. Navigating the labyran of modern existence, I discovered that productivity isn't just a goal, it's a way of being. It sounds like a philosophy major, having a quarter life crisis on notion templates. Through the darkest moments of my journey, I realized that optimizing my task list was the key to personal growth. Oh, the ramatic buildup to do a slightly disappropriate emotional weight. Don't you think? Artificial intelligence doesn't just assist. It elevates, inspires and redefines what it means to be human. Intense energy for a sentence that might just mean AI helps us write faster. The future of creativity is being revolutionized by artificial intelligence in ways never imagined, never before imagined. Now you get the point. Sometimes AI sounds like it's trying to hype me up for something I didn't ask for. Other times, it swings in the opposite direction and tries to fake vulnerability. But anyway, ends up sounding off. It's not that humans always write with the perfect emotional tone. Of course, we don't and not all of us are talented copywriters or anyhow skilled at writing. But we tend to sense when something is too dramatic or too flat and we adjust. For example, I might write. Honestly, I was excited about AI first. Then I read a few pieces and felt a little weird. The tone was trying really hard to be emotional, but there was no heartbeat underneath. Did you notice it to? The difference is that this one feels like someone is processing the thought in real time and the sentences from AI often feel like someone is trying to win best use of adjectives in some weird marketing competition. So if a post, even an article 0R any essay feels like it's either overselling or oversharing without really saying anything. Chances are, it wasn't written by someone who has really felt these words. 11. Look at Sentences’ Length: At sentences length. Do you know that feeling when we are walking on a treadmill, even though you are technically moving, your brain starts to fall asleep. I think that's the gym inspired comparison, but that's how it feels when I read a block of AI writing with exactly the same sentence length and rhythm. It many times goes like this. AI is changing the way we live. It affects how we work. It influences the way we connect. The future is coming fast. It's time to adapt. And as you can easily spot, all the sentences are around the same length and all the ideas are equally weighted. After a while of reading a text like this, your brain just drifts. At least mind us. Most of the time, AI loves to build paragraphs like metronome. Some pace, some tone. Every sentence is roughly the same length delivered in neat tidy rows like bricks, which means pretty quickly the writing starts to lose something and even when the ideas are solid, something about it just make your eyes glaze over, not because it's incorrect, but because it just feels flat, like the writing is on autopilot because humans don't talk like this, neither when we speak nor when we write. Ba when we are excited about something, we suddenly got really intense about something. And then trail off when we are not quite sure how to end the fight. Here is a rhythm I like in human writing and talking, short, long, short, for example, like this. Oh, no, it didn't land. I think it's because we were trying too hard to say something impressive instead of saying something onous and spontaneous. Maybe we can try again. Do you see it? The spacing, that variation of length, that what wakes a reader up again. AI doesn't do that, at least not without advanced prompting techniques. Not unless you specifically tell it to with this advanced prompt. So next time you are reading something and it feels stiff, check the sentence length. If every line is marching to the same bit, there is a good chance there's AI behind the wheel. Always look for these red flags. Look for uniform sentence length because as you already know, AI tends to keep sentences in the medium range, about 15, 25 words. And as you can see in the example, there's a huge difference between how we speak naturally, how we write, even though yes, there's an in my human like variation. Don't mind me. But we humans use sentence length to control pacing, short for tension, long for reflection, and AI unfortunately keeps things very steady and AI also uses the looping cadens which I personally hate and how to recognize if there is something strange about the rhythm, read the text loud. Does every sentence take about the same breath to say? Analyze that. Notice that. The very short or very long sentences always never appear. It's really so much easier to notice that when you read the text loud. 12. AI and the Em Dash Habit. Does the Em Dash Give ChatGPT Away?: Dash. Let's talk about the dash for a second or okay. Maybe for much longer has dash deserves this time. I've used dashes for as long as I've been writing. They are my little verbal side glances, a way to pause, break a rhythm, add a twist of a tone. But now you might be seeing headlines and reading press calling them AI giveaways. Wait. Watch. Look, if you're not deep into the world of punctuations, here's a quick catch up. M dash is that long horizontal line used to break up a sentence. Usually we a coma or parent hass could go. It's called N because it's roughly the width of the letter M as opposed to the N dash, which is closer in size to the letter N. And yes, typographers name them and writers just kept using. And now now AI loves them too. But why AI loves them? It's very, very simple to explain that. M dashes show up a lot in AI generated content because they also show up a lot in books, academic writing and news articles. That's exactly the kind of material large language models LLMs were trained on. Formal structure and heavily edited contents and M dashes were them. I AI writes the sources it learned from and those sources were packed with dashes. Well, here we are. But here is the very important twist. It's not the dash itself that's robotic. It's how AI uses it. In human writing, the dash often carries personality. It can punch up a line, create a breath, or offer an ast that feels like it's happening right inside your head. But in AI writing, it's often very mechanical. Just another transition, just another placeholder. Just another way to move from one clause to another without really committing. The sentence. No, I won't stop using them in my personal writing because I always love them and maybe you like me. I think there's nothing wrong with using them now. But I think it is very, very suspicious to see them in posts of creatures or people who have never used them before, like wait. Now instantly, out of the blue. They fall in love with using dashes. Why haven't you before? Because I think we all know someone who never really had a way with words. But lately, their captions, emails, even birthday wishes suddenly sound weirdly polished. Yeah, suspiciously polished. Dashes everywhere. Perfectly spaced bullet points. Sprinkle of italics for flair. Yeah. Chances on, they discovered GPT or Cloud or Grock. I don't think we need to bend the dash L it's some kind of forbidden artifact. It's not cursed, it's just overexposed. What bugs me is this new paranoia. But if I include an MD, someone will instantly assume I didn't write the thing myself that I pasted something in from TGPT and hit publish. I completely feel and I completely agree with the people defending MDAhes just like I did a moment ago. Writers have always used MDAhes. But this wasn't a very big group. But some people from our daily lives, they never used MDhesF example, in Linked in post or Instagram captions and suddenly they are using them. To be honest, I never really noticed them that much. Social media until AI writing took over my feet and now they are everywhere on LinkedIn and Saptac essays, even in emails from people who used to end every sentence with laughing out loud. Suddenly, everyone is writing like they've been worshipping personal essays in Paris cafes. That's where the doubt creeps in. Because even when you are reading something brilliant, there is an MDS sitting there mid sentence, you start squinting, looking for other clues, you start questioning the whole thing. Even if it passes the vibe check, something has shifted and the trust gets a little cloudy, maybe sometimes even when it shouldn't. It scares me. Oh, yeah, MDs are now everywhere. Everywhere in AI writing, but they are still in good human writing too. But if someone never used them before and now they suddenly pop up in every post and every fourth sentence, it's suspicious because the MDs has traditionally lived in essays, personal reflections, and the writing of people who have well, actually read a lot of books and know how to write, but now they are everywhere. This is case from the future. And I need you to notice that there is no dash button on most keyboards, which means if you want to use dash in your text, when you write on your phone, it takes a few extra seconds at least, and you know how people type on their phones, Busy coworkers, especially. Their replies are usually very quick full of typos, missing commas, sometimes no punctuation at all. But then suddenly this person start sending long structured paragraphs and they are really perfectly structured. Every coma in the right place. M dashes, where you'd never expected them. And you look at it like, Wow, it's flawless. Really, MDs and comas and punctuation like they are suddenly writing a novel. That's great for them, of course, but here's the thing. If ChaGPT disappeared tomorrow, they'd be right back to their old style of responding. Short, rushed, full of mistakes, full of typos, and definitely no dashes. Really? Really? If ChaGPT disappeared tomorrow, they'd be right back to sending Okay, send from my iPhone with free typos and no punctuation. How do you feel when you see an dash? Let me know in the discussion section. 13. The Other Patterns That Caught My Eye: Other pattern that caught my eye. Yes, the more of them, there is a certain writing that I see on Substack Instagram. Well, everywhere now that looks very polished at first glance, it flows, it transitions. It wraps everything up in neat little paragraphs. But the more I read it, the more I could feel it, the unmistakable voice of a eye trying to sound emotional. It's the predictability, like it was mimicking the structure of a human thought. And once I saw the patterns, I couldn't and see them. Now I want to share them all with you more of them so you never look at the generic Instagram post the way you did before. But let's dive deeper into the next ones. The voice praises. You know the ones. Here is the kicker. Here is the truth. Spoiler alert. They show up everywhere. And yes, humans use them too. I have to tell you, I love to say spoiler alert in my courses, and I think I've been using this phrase more often than I should. But unfortunately, AI also loves to use it, but not like this. EI seems to sprinkle those phrases in confetti, hoping they will make the writing feel more casual. But to me, it reads like someone doing a bad impression of a newsletter writer. Dramatic line break trick. This little structure shows up everywhere and AI tries to sound smart and human. Have a look at these examples to identify it. The see it now, short wood, question mark, then pause. Why does AI leans on the structure so much? Because it's statistically rewarded in its training data. Because as you may already know, AI is trained on a diet of academic writing. Fd leader posts, trying to be profound sometimes in free lines or less. Copywriting formulas that split ideas for emphasis, block intros that feel like they are pitching a tech to nobody asked for. So it learns. Oh, wow, when humans want to sound deep. They break lines dramatically, and yi. Mimic that cadence again and again and again until every other paragraph sounds like this. Turnout? It's not the badge of honor you think it is. Influence is what happens when you values get loud, discomfort, that is growth in disguise. Now to be fair, people absolutely might sometimes use this structure naturally. I do it too. But when I do, I think there's a different tone behind it. Usually more self aware, less preachy. The AI version often reads like it's trying to preach. The human version is more a confession. For example, fear. Yeah, I know it well. Regret? Yes, I carried it for years. Joy, I didn't recognize it at first. Do you see how somehow it feels softer and more honest? Log of text and symmetrical paragraphs. I have to admit I often think that AIRI like someone who took one creative writing class and then immediately preferred Excel. Everything is organized into tiny little blocks. It goes like this. Fought transition, next fought repeat. Here is what I Programmers break big problems into smaller functions and loop. I think AI does something very similar when it generates text. Let me explain to you what I mean. After reading millions of AI generated paragraphs, I started to realize it's writing and blueprints, like someone taught it to organize thoughts the way a software engineer organizes code. It's not surprisingly really because AI was also trained on tech heavy dataset, shaped by clarity ups knowledge basis. The model naturally gravitates toward patterns that work and by work, I mean make predictable sense, which is helpful for answering math problems. Less so for writing with soul or creative writing. And here is where it gets strange. I writes and what I can only describe as function shaped blocks. A clear input, a dramatic pause, and then an output that pretends to surprise you. Here is the real problem and what you can do about it. The truth not what you think. You thought it was this. Turns out it's that. After you notice that pattern, you start seeing it everywhere. Because AI is simply behaving like a magician. With one trick. With one trick, you're changing the deck of cards. Then there is this most frustrating thing I noticed in so many AI generated essays. Looping, as I've already told you, this habit of repeating the same sentence shape with just enough variation to sound like progress, but it's not progress. It's more like recycling. For example, AI helps marketers, AI helps writers, AI helps teachers. This tool works for emails, works for scripts, works for presentations. It's not that it sounds bad. It just doesn't build. It feels like a holding pattern when you are landing in bad weather conditions, it's like circling around the airport but not quite landing anywhere. There is also this if then thinking that creeps in, like AI is running conditionals in a script instead of expressing a thought. Traditional methods were slow. AI speeds them up. People used to struggle with content. Now with AI, they don't. If you want efficiency, then you'll want this. It's writing logic disguised as insight and show. Logic can be beautiful, but only when it's earned. This just feels like a shortcut, dressed up as a revelation. Oh, oh, and I would forget. And there is this AI metaphor obsession or what I think of as variable assignments where every concept has to become a cute little comparison. Think of AI as your copilot. Proms are like spells for your ideas. You tone and voice, basically the style sheet of your writing. Here are some more. That are a real examples of what TGPT generated. And it's not the metaphors, I mind. I love metaphors myself and I love coming up with new creative ones. It's the neatness, I hate, I think, the way AI flatten something complicated into a punchline, like metaphor only for a metaphors sake. And as I've already told you, the MDs inside. AI uses MDs as an escape. When in doubt, AI drops an MDS and moves on. It doesn't always know how to transition, so it doesn't is changing, and AI is at the center. These tools are everywhere in work clothes in classroom and your inbox. It's not just a trend, it's a future. And I've told you, once you start noticing these patterns, they are hard to unsee. They show up like a little watermarks across AI generated writing, which fascinates me honestly because AI writing is an echo. Very often it's very symmetrical and hollow. I what I'm saying feels like a neat little wrap up with a reflection, well, maybe that's the point because maybe I've been reading too much AI writing and too much AI generated content. And I slowly begin to sound like AI. Please tell me I don't. To sum up this chapter. You already know AI has a thing for MDAhes I also have to mention AI loves italics, especially when it wants to sound dramatic. It's also obsessed with lists of and it loves circling back to its main point for some reasons, it keeps shaping paragraphs into the oddly the same lengths like it's following an invisible ruler. If I had to summarize this section chapter with one big takeaway, I think it would be this. When writing is too perfect, too vogue or too repetitive, or it starts to feel like someone is performing language instead of using it to connect. That's the most important clue. It might be written by AI. Let me end this chapter with what I think is really useful a vibe scan checklist. When you are reading something and trying to tell if something is AI written, tune in to this. Does it feel too clean to rehearse? A phrases repeated just enough to feel suspicious. There many cute and unusual metaphors, even though the author wasn't using metaphors, for example, two years ago, are emotions mentioned but never really felt. Is there a strong voice and strong opinions or is the voice weirdly neutral? Like trying to not to offend anyone? Do the stories feel real and specific or could they belong to literally anyone? Maybe, most importantly, does this sound like something someone would love to share and would love to write, even with tired eyes and does it have a real story and real experience to tell? 14. AI’s Favorite Words (and How to Catch Them): Words that make it obvious, your text is written by AI. Okay, here's the part where I will share something I really wish wasn't true. There are certain words that the moment I see them make my trust level drop to about three out of ten, not because the words themselves are about. Also use them and have used them before. They are just not how most people talk. When they show up too often, especially in a very casual writing, they feel a little suspicious, like someone asks GPT to make it sound professional and then just copy paste whatever came out. These words in the realm of additionally groundbreaking. Shed light on, delves into and unfortunately also, however. I'm not saying these words should be banned forever or you shouldn't use them. No, not at all. But we can and we should swap them out for something simpler, something more. And suddenly your sentence will feel ten times more alive. Here's how I like to think about it. AI now loves to use the phrase in the realm of, but we can just say in the world of or to be more specific, for example, for the design industry. Additionally, another word that AI is solely obsessed with. We can try also another example. Honestly, just start a new sentence. Another favorite of AI delved into. I can't count how many times I have seen this one delve into. I would swap that for delve into or got curious about much simpler, much better, much more human another one AI loves shed light on. But we can just say highlight or made clear, or even brought into focus. Those are the phrases that AI isn't using so often, so they are much safer. However, yes, of course, AI loves however. We can say that set or but and if you are like me, you can just pause dramatically and shift your tone. The main idea behind that is if a word feels like it belongs in a formal press release, but you are writing an Instagram caption, an email or a personal post on a blog or a subs. We should swap these words out and you will sound more like you and less like AI. Because honestly, the best way to sound smart is to stop trying so hard to sound smart. I have to tell you I have a soft spot for phrases like empower and transform. Until I see five of them jumped into the same sentence, and suddenly I feel like I'm reading a start up mission statement written by CLGPT who's never had a real job. And here is a sentence I came across lately. We leverage innovative solutions to empower creators and drive meaningful impact at scale, which sounds very cool. I got to admit. But what do you actually do. When AI writes, it often strings together important sounding words. They are usually a little bit abstract, vogue, and just load in the air without anything ground in them. Here are some of AI favorite go to words that I haven't mentioned yet. Innovative game changing. I love this one before. It was training. Impactful. Empower, scale Drive results, leverage, navigate, enhance expertise, offerings, valuable, leverage, unraveling, intricate interplay. When you see three or more of these living in one paragraph, yeah, it's right to be suspicious because AI loves these words. AI makes a sentence sound professional, polished and very often completely hollow. A human, if they're being honest, would probably write something more like, we help small businesses stop wasting money on stuff they don't need and get their message across clearly. I would be much more real, much more understandable. And that's the thing. AI is great at saying nothing but beautifully. Humans, we always say something. We always have some emotions behind what we say, even if we say it in a little bit messy way. Yes, there are words that just scream, this was written by AI and they are not. Exactly. Of course, we also use them. They are normal words and we had them in our personal dictionaries before. But they are very official. They are very from academic writing, so AI was trained on those sources and that's why it loves these words so much. Now let's break down some of my personal favorite examples in detail to call out transformative. Here is what AI said. By harnessing the power of big data analytics, businesses can unlock transformative insights that drive strategic decision making and enhance operational efficiency. I can't lie. Now every time the moment I see the word transformative, I start looking for more clues because it's one of those words that tries really hard to make things sound word changing when most of the time it's just talking about a newsletter redesign or some fancy dashboard. And now let's analyze why it gives AI away. It over hypes everything. It adds sparkle where there should be clarity and specificity and more often than not, it just fluff in a cap and what to do instead. Honestly, try removing it entirely. Most of the time, the sentence makes just as much sense without it. If you must replace it, go for something more grounded, like helpful, meaningful, useful actually made a difference because we need to remember that simple words are not boring. They are just honest and people use them in real conversation. That's how we talk. Tapestry, a tapestry off. Example, from AI, the museum displayed a stunning tapestry depicting scenes from ancient mythology. And I think hGPT seems to be obsessed with this world. You could ask it to write about online banking and it can say something like it's a tapestry of security, convenience, and modern finance. Why it gives AI away. It's trying to sound elegant and meaningful, but it's doing that thing where it borrows death instead of creating any. Also, we don't Talk like this. I don't sit across from a friend and say, Oh, how is my weekend? My weekend was a tapestry of laughter and homemade pasta. If I do talk like this, please take my phone away and what to do instead I sound more natural, how to edit the sentence. All things what they are. If something is connected, say it's connected. If it's layered, say it's layered. If it's a little chaotic but somehow working, say that. For example, the museum had this wild room full of old stories stitched into fabric, mythology, mets, embroidery, basically. That's how a human says it more casual and much more specific. This is about it's all about and here is the example I once saw in one of the AI generated results. The ultimate gamers guide is all about giving you the strategies to conquer any gaming challenge and level up your skills without breaking the bank. If you've ever use this phrase, don't panic, if it's one of your personal favorites, also don't panic because we all use this. But here is the thing. Now, unfortunately, the moment I see this is all about, I get a little bit suspicious because nine times out of ten, it means the writer didn't know how to actually say what it's about. It's a fill in the blank move that sounds helpful. Dogs, the real explanation and why it might give AI away. AI uses this construction a lot because it's formulaic. It sounds like it's making a point, but it's not actually saying much. It's describing Lasagna as a celebration of layered food. Okay, but what was in it? What you do instead? Get more specific instead of. This guide is all about helping you save money. Try. This guide is basically a cheat code for not getting destroyed online and keeping your wallet intact. One version is very generic and it has been repeated million times online. The other sounds like something someone might say with chips in their hand and that's what we should be going for fostering. And here I have an example. I establishes a coercive visual identity, fostering a sense of reliability and professionalism. Why do I know I? Because it sounds intentional. But it tells me? Absolutely nothing. Fostering what exactly? A vibe, a culture, a polite nod from a potential investor. And when we use the word foster, it's often because we are trying to sound thoughtful, but haven't quite figure out what we actually mean. It's a placeholder for a feeling that we can't name yet. And why it gives AI away? Because as you already know, AI loves vagueness. Fostering is a comfort word for AI. It's literally the equivalent of things and stuff. And what to use instead, what to do instead say what's actually happening. Instead of fostering a sense of connection, try helping people feel seen or creating a shared language or making the brand feel like a real person. Not a corporate void, the more specific you get, the more human you sound. Think of it us. I also used to write like this a lot. Think of this us mostly because I thought I was helping the reader. Giving them a clear way in, offering a metaphor, making things feel smart but accessible. But at some point, I realized that every time I saw that phrase, especially in a blog post or Substack post or articles written by I, it made me stop and question the whole thing. I I stopped using that often that often in my own writing because of the fact that AI loved this pattern, it started to feel like a shortcut. Like it's trying to get clarity without actually sitting in the ness of the idea. Think of influential blogs and forums as your digital mentors. I mean, sure, that's a tiny little sentence, but it also feels like something you'd read in a linked in carusel with too many emodis and not enough essence. It sounds like a filler, like a sentence that has no soul behind it. And the giveaway, why we know is AI because AI loves telling you how to think. But the human writing doesn't usually do that. We don't walk around telling our friends think of my ex as the learning opportunity. We just say he was the worst, but I also weirdly learn something from him or from him. If you catch yourself writing, think of it as pause. Ask yourself what I'm actually trying to say. What's the situation I'm reaching for and say that instead. For example, we could transform the sentence from AI Think of influential blogs and forums as your digital mentors into. I learned more from the comment section of that forum than I ever did in school. It was like a free mentorship, but yeah, messier. It's like the AI favorite metaphor. It's like having a front row seat of the future of crypto or from the comfort of your couch. Okay. I get it. It's meant to be visual, familiar. Relatable. But the moment I see it's lie in this perfect little setup. I get this weird feeling in my chest. Like, someone is trying to sell me something I didn't ask for. The thing is AI loves this phrase. It's AIs go to structure, easy formula and instantly recognizable. So much that sometimes when a human writes it, it reads robotic. I also used to lean on it's like too much. Too much when I didn't quite know how to transition in a sentence or when I was trying to sound clever. But now I see it for what it is. A little sign that says, I didn't sit with this long enough to make it feel more specific. So what you can do instead? Well, you already know, just say the thing. Make it sound like you actually thought about it. Instead of it's like having a front row seat in the future. Try you were watching something shift right in front of you on your screen. Now it's not a metaphor and feeling they are way harder to fake by a eye and it shows in the writing. Not only, but also. Yes, it's giving high school essay energy and it's time to talk about one of those phrases that sounds like a eye is trying too hard to impress a teacher. Not only do pillar pages help users navigate better, but they also position your as an industry leader, sure, it sounds neat tidy and balanced. Yeah, too balanced, too tidy, too neat. And you already know it. AI loves symmetry. It really likes when a sentence walks in a straight line because it was trained on so much academic writing. So not only, but also is one of AI's go to moves. And why it gives AI away? Because it sounds formal and scripted. Like a headline from a corporate brochure. And to be fair, it's not wrong. It's totally okay. If you use it, I just want to say that AI loves this phrase too. It just doesn't feel like something a person says when they actually care about what they are writing. Unless, and this is important. These two things you are comparing are kind of together or surprising. That's when I think it works. For example, not only did she ghost me, but she also sent me a Christmas card. Six months later. Yes. This is the normal usage of this phrase, and absolutely use it there. Not only was it raining, but also somehow the Uber driver was my old math thir. Also aloud yes. But if you are just listing two benefits of marketing strategy, no, it instantly tells us that AI was used there. Be how real people would write it? I think humans drop the performance. They just say What's true. For example, using pillar pages makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for. And yeah, it makes your brand look like it has its together. Oh, pillar pages do two things really well, help your users and make you look like you know what you are doing. It's not this, it's that pattern. You've probably seen this format. As always, it tries to sound wise, mysterious, and a little poetic. This is the sentence structure. I see everywhere now in car results, in Instagram captions, AI generated essays on sop song, and even well meaning advice posts that were also generated with Chad GPT. It's not about being selfish. It's about protecting your piece. You get the picture. At some point, this pattern went from clever and grounding to so overused, it started sounding fake. Of course, AI loves this structure because it's clean, predictable, parallel there is something satisfying about it like sentence symmetry. But there's also exactly what makes it feel robotic. In the second, you see that structure, you can swap the nouns like refrigerator magnets and get the same effect. It's not attention, it's the intention, it's not writing, it's resonance, don't get me wrong. Sometimes this structure works really well. I also use it in my personal writing, which has never seen an AI. But when it shows up in back to back sentences, it really starts to feel like a ted talk never quite lens because real people usually don't phrase things so tightly when they care about something deeply. They stumble, they try to explain, they side halfway through. It's also important to mention that when you know another personally, you know them in real life, it's really easier to recognize they wrote it themselves if they could write a thing you are reading themselves, and you can easily tell if it's them or if it's Cha JPT. Because you knew them before, because you know them, their talking style, how they think, how they articulate your ideas, and you know their natural manners. But it's so much more difficult. When you don't know an author personal in real life. And you see someone's first article, first post, and the author is someone new and anonymous to you. Then for most people, it's really difficult to distinguish whether the vocabulary, the post is or isn't at a level appropriate and natural for a given author. And yes, that's exactly where the knowledge from today's comes in handy and can help you more easily recognize the auspicious patterns. But I also can't stress this enough and I need to repeat it one more time that AI writes like the sources it was trained on. Which means, yeah, AI mimics us. AI mimics humans. But just not the writing style of the humans we work and collaborate with on a daily basis, not the casual, very spoken language we are used to. Of course, it's changing with time changing for the better as AI is in the constant state of being trained on new datasets. But what is funny that now AI is also being trained on articles and posts that TGPT wrote. So it's being trained on the texts that AI wrote. It's like it's learning from itself. 15. AI Detectors: I detectors. One of the newest GPTs passed the turing test, it was no big deal. Researchers at UC San Diego run this experiment where people chat it just text for 5 minutes with either human or the AI. Then they had to guess which was which, and you know what happened. How the GPT got mistaken for a real person 73% of the time. Not 50%, not even close. That's well past the random guess line that we literally couldn't tell anymore. And that changes a lot more than people want to admit because now that post you are reading on LinkedIn could been AI. The video that made you emotional could been AI. The essay you are grading, the code you are reviewing, the pich deck you are being with your actual money. Yes, you get it. What about those shiny AI detectors everyone spent money on? Unfortunately, many of them are pretty much useless at this point. Sorry. I think it's also the question we will have to ask ourselves sooner than later. How do we build systems that still work and maybe even thrive, no matter who or what? Created the input. Because if you want results that AI can't replicate, then you need inputs AI doesn't have access to lived experiences, deep understanding, unusual contexts, just stuff that doesn't come from a training set. Maybe that's where the real opportunity is now. But that's another topic back to AI detectors. The tricky thing about AI writing now, yes, it's getting harder to catch by AI detectors, even the most expensive ones because people have learned how to hide it. They are mixing and matching, prompting, editing, paraphrasing. Running it through rewriters. It's not AI or human like it was anymore. It's both, and that's what makes detection messy. Even I teach advanced prompting techniques in my other courses because I didn't want to gate keep all that knowledge, hoping people will use it to make their lives easier, that it would be helpful white magic for them to the lives a little bit better, a little bit more enjoyable because they have more time for the things that matter most to them for their loved ones, not something that ends up being used for the wrong or unethical reasons. I'm constantly reading something that might be AI generated, blog post, emails, pitch decks and because it's part of the job, I've tested just about every AI detection tool out there, GPT zero GPT, copy leaks, many, many more that were brand new and promised excellent results. And also some chrome extensions and safari. So were okay. So were completely crazy and unreliable because they were flying my own personal untouched by AI writing as I and most were somewhere in the middle. But the main issue, they are too sensitive when something sounds too polished and too blind when something's been lightly rewarded. If the sentences are short, the detectors freak out. If the sentences are long and more often than not, they don't tell you exactly why they are flagging something. Anyone who wants to sneak it through probably will because I know the weaknesses of AI detectors. If I ever come across something truly worth recommending, something I truly trust, I will update this chapter right away and post an announcement about it. Don't worry. I don't plan on stopping the tests anytime soon, even though I've already tried more tools than I can count. Honestly, it's wild how much money some of them make despite being so far from being perfect or reliable. This escaped from the future and I need to add something very important though a little bit set. There are already thousands of cases where students were falsely accused of using I ClsenI detectors work by measuring perplexity. By running your text for a large language model. And considering the probability that the model would have chosen the same words, the same word options as you did, the same words as and what is funny is that some AI detectors like things like US Constitution as being AI generated, which is an obvious sign that they are unreliable and they aren't measuring what we think they are measuring. Why does it happen? Because the US Constitution has appeared so many times in the EIs training data. So now obviously, it's very easy for large language model to use the words from US Constitution because it was strained on it so many times. So what do remember from here? AI detectors aren't telling you whether AI wrote detext you are reading or you are pasting into it. But whether had bought ChatGPT or other lag language model Hoot. Could have written the text. Also as a bonus, here I'm showing you some algorithmic clues which AI detectors rely on and measure when judging the text. Some people also worry that artistic writers might experience their text being flagged as AI generated more often than neurotypical writers because they naturally like writing using patterns and they prefer concise, perfect sentences and perfect structure. Also, this is very important. This speaks volume. Even the authors of AI detectors repeat and write officially that their tools aren't reliable tools for recognizing dishonesty and arrangement for official or academic purposes. I think that speaks volume. 16. How to Make AI Writing Feel More Human? How to Trick Everyone Into Thinking You Wrote It?: How to trick everyone into thinking you wrote it. How to make AI writing feel more human? Because maybe you are using AI to help you write and honestly, I get it. I use it too, but not for my personal writing, not for the honest authentic writing I love. But in work, I think it can be a really solid thinking partner, especially on those super busy days. But here's the thing. Just because the writing is technically correct, doesn't mean it sounds like you or sounds human. If you've ever read something back and thought, wait. Why does this sound like I've been possessed by a customer support agent? Let's talk about how to keep the help but lose the AI is vibe. These are a few dead simple ways to humanize AI writing without needing another tool extension or paid prompts. Rewrite in your actual voice. As you already know from this course, a lot of AI writing is overly tidy, polish to the point where it feels just blank. AI might give you a sentence like AI generated content typically follows a highly structured and predictable format. But you could just say the eye writing all sounds the same after a while. They see the difference. One feels like it came from someone with a personality. The other feels like it came from a brochure or PDF. Of course, you don't need to rewrite everything, but just check if something sounds too safe, too netural or too formal, tweak it until it feels something you would really say in a conversation and protip, read it loud. If you cringe a little, you know it's time to make it more you. Inject something real, a story from your real life. Because AI writing is very often like bash painting. It's inoffensive, clean, and forgettable. But if you want your words to land, you have to bring them to life. And real stories, no matter how small are one of the fastest ways to do that because AI might write. Imposter syndrome is common among creatives and professionals alike. Which okay, is true, but sounds very dry and you could say instead. A few months ago, I rewrote the same paragraph six times before realizing it. Oh, this is just imposter syndrome playing dress up as my perfectionism. Even just one sentence can flip the energy of a whole post. AI doesn't know what your Tuesday felt like. You do. Say it, use this. Use those emotions and those memories. Losing the rhythm. Yes, I've already repeated it. I don't know. Five times or more, you tell me, and I also loves less of free. Like you will gain clarity, boost productivity, and grow your business. Okay. But would you ever say that loud? Try breaking the rhythm, leave a thought hanging. Add a pause because your sentences don't need to be perfect. For example, honestly, I just wanted to feel a little less crumbled every morning. Clarity came later, and as you can see, it's much less about the perfect flow and more about feeling through. Here is another very sounding paragraph. Time management is essential for professionals and fast paced industries. With proper scheduling, task prioritization, and delegation, individuals can maximize productivity and achieve their goals efficiently. Now, let's humanize it. Look, if you are to do this, it looks like a CVS receipt and you keep skipping lunch because meetings don't stop. Yeah. Time management is something you should figure out because you don't need to say it the way a textbook would. You just need to say it the way you would. Say goodbye to B speak. AI has a weird crush on corporate language. It will spit out stuff like this cutting edge solution delivers enhanced value for cross functional teams. But come on, you could just say this tool makes things easier for people who actually do the work. Be okay with some mess. AI wants to close every loop. But people don't always talk and finish fuss. Sometimes we hesitate. We very often hesitate. We rumble. Sometimes we Tiva mid sentence. Sometimes we end a sentence with a question and don't answer it. So let your writing have edges, weird metaphors, but really weird and creative. You ones, not the metaphors that is domain, quiet confessions, because that's where being human lives. And I would say edit with your intuition, not Taji PT or grammarly. Because tools wants you to clean everything up. Capitalize every subject line, remove every passive phrase, shorten every sentence. But the more you obey the rules, the more sterile your writing becomes. Don't worry if something is slightly off. If it feels like you, it probably reads like you too. What's actually bothering us? I'm still thinking about it and I'm still doing more research among my colleagues and my clients. But I think many times it's not the fact that something was written by AI. It's the way it feels too clean, too boring, to save, too, like it's written from formula. Stripped of any real voice built to sound like everyone else, someone or no one. And in a scroll happy world full of same sounding stuff, blending in is the quickest way to disappear. What can you do instead? What can we do instead? I really, really can't stress this enough. Skip the vogue navigating change phrases. Share that story about the day you nearly walked away. Swap delivering results. For the moment, it all went sideways and won't pull you through. Don't say you empower your audience, like they are actual people because they are. I think the creators who will stand out tomorrow aren't the ones writing the most advanced prompts. They are the ones with the most unique and honest voice. 17. Final Words and My Question to You: Words and my question to you. Okay, we made it. If you made it all the way here, I hope your reader for AI generated writing is just a bit sharper than it was before or maybe a lot. Whether you are a curious reader, a content editor, a content creator, or someone who just really values, knowing was real. Thank you for going on a slightly nerdy, but hopefully fun journey with me. This wasn't about blaming or shaming anyone who uses AI. It's about, no, I'm using the formula that AI loves. It's about awareness that pause when you read something and suddenly you think, Oh, something is off here and now you might even know why. Also, if this topic got you curious, I'm currently working on a separate course about spotting AI generated images, videos and photos because yes, I've been tracking patterns there too, and some of them are wild and I haven't seen anyone mention them. If that sounds interesting, stay tuned and if you enjoy this course or learn something new, which I really hope you did. I'd love to hear your thoughts. What surprised you the most? Did any example really click with you? Have you spotted anything suspicious recently, or maybe you have a friend who suddenly started using Em Dash. So I'd love to hear from you, leave a review, or share your reflections in the class project section and in the discussion section, and I read every single one. Thanks again for being here with me and for caring about words, truths, and attention to detail as much as I do. Susan,