If you’re new to using AI to help with writing, you might not yet recognize how AI-generated text “sounds.” Something you wrote with ChatGPT might seem pretty good to you, but to someone more experienced, it’s immediately obvious that AI did it. Yikes.
The faster you develop an instinct for how AI writing sounds, the faster you can use AI to support your own writing without sounding like you relied on it.
Here are a few ways to train your ear to recognize AI-generated content:
- Practice writing with AI yourself. You’ll find that patterns show up right away. Keep a running list of words and phrases that AI uses over and over.
- Ask the AI tool to critique itself. Ask it directly what parts of your text sound AI-generated. You can also ask ChatGPT to assess text written with Claude (or visa versa).
- Use an AI detection tool like GPTZero. Not as the final answer, but to highlight areas that may need attention.
- Spend time where AI-written content is common, like Medium, Quora, LinkedIn (posts and comments), and Amazon product reviews. You’ll get the vibe.
- Browse Reddit threads on AI and writing. Reddit is messy, but full it’s full of real-life examples and debates about AI-generated writing.
- Follow a few thoughtful voices on LinkedIn. There’s no shortage of opinions on AI-generated writing on that platform, but some people are sharing thoughtful, useful analysis. (Ahem.)
The goal here isn’t to fool people. Don’t use AI and then try to cover your tracks. But AI is quickly becoming part of how professional writing gets done, so it’s worth learning how to use it well. Getting good at hearing the language of AI is a decent first step.
Wording I’ve recently noticed ChatGPT loves to use:
- “…with clarity and confidence.”
- “…that matters most.”
- “quietly”
- “actually”
- “genuinely”
- “shape” and “shaping”
- “ecosystem”
Wait! You don’t have to stop using these. If you actually, genuinely use these words to shape your writing, keep doing that. Your voice will come through in the rest of your piece.
But if you don’t use these phrases already, know that they can definitely make your writing sound AI-generated—for now. AI models are always learning, so AI “tells” are constantly changing.