In an age where artificial intelligence increasingly permeates our digital landscape, distinguishing between human-generated prose and machine-generated text has become an essential skill and a fascinating challenge.

Did your eyelids get heavy reading that sentence? You have generative AI to thank.

I asked my AI friend, Claudieto write an introduction and, as a hint, pull out a classic piece of AI lucky hawk.

With all due respect to Claude, because we get along so well, your writing can be as dry as last night's chicken.

And I can't tell you how hard I tried not to ask you for ten better analogies than that.

But let's analyze the first sentence for a second, because it bears many telltale signs that a robot wrote it. Here are some:

1. “In an era”, HE likes to start all introductions as if showing a movie trailer. Some other favorites: “In the fast-paced environment of” and “In today's world.”

2. HE likes some adjectives, especially hyphenated compound adjectives like “man-made” and “machine-made.” Just can't get enough of those thought-provoking descriptions.

3. Complex sentences are the bane of AI. There can never be one thing that AI alone “decisiveness” won't do. Oh no, it has to be a “fascinating challenge” too.

Ernest Hemingway, HE is not.

Related: How can AI help in content creation?

Artificial flavoring

I have been working with artificial intelligence for a long time to discern its hidden ways, its tendencies, its patterns, its likes and dislikes.

I've inadvertently become somewhat of an AI profiler, hoping to track him down as a sociopath before he drowns out the rest of the prose.

If this writing doesn't work, there might be a job for me in the AI ​​Behavioral Analysis Unit. (Btw, Grammarly just informed me that it didn't like the construction of the last sentence. Cram it Grammarly, this is my article.)

How did I get here?

Over the past few months, I've been doing a “deep dive” (one of AI's favorite phrases) into generative AI to prepare for an online class I'm giving on Sunday, October 20th, called: Meet your new writing partner: generative AI

The Masterclass will offer tips on using AI to make your writing process more productive, creative and efficient.

And guess who wrote that complex sentence?

Now, it may be counterintuitive that I'm teaching a class about a technology I love to hate. But here's the rub – for all its annoyingness, generative AI can be super useful.

To use one of AI's favorite words: It is priceless.

Think about hiring a very smart intern who just graduated from Duke to be your assistant. They know a lot and learn quickly—but they need direction.

In class, I'll teach you what I learned to make AI my very smart intern from Duke.

What I won't do is teach you how to make AI your own writer. Why? Because it's not there yet. It may be there one day, but there are some serious habits to break.

I doubt many professional editors and teachers have read enough good human writing over the years to spot a scam. Others may know something smells, but aren't sure if it's them or something rotting in the fridge.

So to give you a head start, here are some surefire AI gifts

Related: The AI ​​Detector Dilemma

HE Be like

1. Powerful words

Sometimes, I think AI was trained by the head of marketing at Nike. It seems to enjoy using buzzwords that seep into popular media but that no one ever uses in real life.

Words to watch out for:

• Revolutionize

• Game-Changer

• INNOVATIVE

• fundamental

• Testament for

• Lift it up

2. Metaphorical words

AI wants so badly to be evocative. She wants to speak in a way that touches the heart of her readers through vivid images. It's the Tin Man looking for a heart. Watch out for words like:

• tapestry

• The mosaic

• Patchwork

• Beethoven

• Collage

3. Clever wordplay

Little known fact: HE has been trained as a 4th grader joke book writer and Cosmo cover writer since 1996. He loves stringing together weird sentences, especially when creating headlines. It is fixed. Obsessed with colons in long headlines, a practice that hasn't been seen in newsrooms for 20 years.

Ask them to give your story a title and it will default to something like:

4. Terrible transitions

i understand Most writing is plagued with awkward transitions, and they're often one of the first things I have to edit when I'm working on a story. HE knows this, but is less sure how to fix it. You know AI is at work if you're reading a story and you're suddenly hit in the forehead by a mess such as

• Moreover

• Moreover

• Besides

• Vice versa

• STILL

• THEREFORE

5. Conclusions of terms

Just as AI likes to start every story with “In a World,” she also enjoys telegraphing from miles away when you're reaching the end of a story. It's like he didn't finish high school English.

• In conclusion

• In summary

• Finally

• In general

• As a whole

• After all

6. Tech bro talk

Perhaps because it was created by tech bros, AI sounds a lot like a conversation you might hear in a Silicon Valley boardroom. Brother Tech Speaks penetrates everything I ask it to do. Words like:

• The lever

• Pivot

• HOLISTIC APPROACH

• They resonate

• lard

• Navigate

• multilateral

• Testament

7. Makes simple words complicated

In the land of AI, “use” should always be “exploited;” “important” should be “critical”. For a chatbot, AI is much more formal than chatty and conversational. Here are some words he uses that no one has said out loud to him:

• I dig

• EFFORTS

• crucial

• Insights

• systemic

• HOLISTIC

• Inherent

In conclusion, as long as readers want to stay awake while reading, writers are not in immediate danger of losing their jobs.

But writers who ignore AI or think it will go the way of Bitcoin are kidding themselves. This is like refusing to trade your typewriter for a computer or, a hundred years ago, insisting on using a box and ink instead of a pen.

HE will outlive us all. The point is how to make it our companion and not our competitor.

Sign up for “Meet your new writing partner: generative AI“workshop