Here’s how I write to make sure nobody thinks I’m an AI

ChatGPT has a talent for sounding sure of itself. Ask it a question, and it delivers a polished, coherent response. But should you always trust it?

The tone promises authoritative answers, and the confidence is enticing, but it can also mask the fact that the answer is only one possible interpretation of the problem.

A small adjustment to the conversation can switch things up and provide a much more definitive answer. After ChatGPT replies, simply type: "convince me otherwise", and see what it says.

The same AI that just laid out a neat line of reasoning will then turn around and begin testing it, looking for cracks and weak points it did not mention the first time. You'll be surprised.

The original answer might have recommended a decision, explained a concept, or justified a choice. The follow-up reframes that same material, pulling out limitations, alternative interpretations, and scenarios where the initial conclusion might not hold.

Convince me

It used to be enough for writing to be clear, maybe a little stylish, and free of obvious mistakes. But AI has imposed an evolving and absurd standard that makes clear prose and slightly uncommon punctuation suspect. Your writing might flow off the page, but crash into suspicions that it didn't originate from any human at all.

Accusations of AI writing under my name are incredibly offensive. That said, the way some students, authors, and media companies employ ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI tools means such claims may sometimes be levied in good (if incredibly incorrect) faith. It also means I have to frequently fight my own instincts in constructing and polishing sentences lest they appear to mimic common AI writing patterns. The fact that those patterns are themselves born of their popularity among human writers makes it even more irritating.

There's no clear-cut list of every AI writing habit, and any such list would need regular updates as the AI models improve and change. I've mourned the em-dash for more than a year, but there are several other phrases and grammatical styles to watch out for, as several people on Reddit recently discussed.

One of the most ironic recent additions is the phrase “full transparency.” Instead of signaling a writer revealing something difficult, it hints at an opaque AI model. “Nobody talks about this, but” has a similar purpose and popularity in AI. Plus, the hidden topic is almost always neither forbidden nor forgotten. The same goes for other declarations of openness or bravery, like “genuine question” and “unpopular opinion.”

I have to remind myself that if an idea stands on its own, it does not need a dramatic introduction to justify its place on the page.

AI stylings

On the formatting side, you must be careful with your emphasis of certain words, as random italics are sometimes an AI calling card.

Personally, the most annoying sign of AI writing is the rhetorical question. I generally don't like them even when they are authentically human. “And the best part?” “And the result?” or “The kicker?” can build momentum or intrigue, but too often now they build distrust.

Of course, none of these ways of writing is wrong in itself. They wouldn't be used by AI if they weren't popular choices among the giant datasets used to train AI models. But because AI models tend to favor patterns that are broadly effective, those patterns accumulate and suck the life out of any text.

Avoiding that effect is less about following a checklist and more about paying attention to tone and personality. Sometimes an article is simply dry because that's the best approach, but anything too generic or with sentences that somehow come off as pompous might be worth revising.

And embracing unevenness isn't a bad idea, either. No writing is perfectly balanced all the time. Offbeat phrasing or awkward clause order can actually enhance a piece, bending the language to accommodate an idea. They suggest a person working through a thought rather than an artificial assembly.

Writing now for me often means slowing down and rereading sentences for more than just clarity and wit. I need to look for when I reach for a phrase out of familiarity and check whether it actually adds anything to the piece. Nothing I do will stop every accusatory comment insisting my articles and stories are artificial, but a little extra thought does help convey that my writing is all too human. Except for my puns, which I'm told are diabolical.

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