TL;DR for AI writing warning signs:
- Use of the em-dash (—)
- Parallel sentence structure (e.g. “It’s not just X, it’s Y”)
- Grouping things in threes or at least odd numbers
- Delineating line breaks with emojis
- Odd/unnatural verbiage
- Overuse of filler words (talking like your average LinkedIn post)
- Exaggerated and empty praise
- Weird analogies and similes
- Restating and overclarifying points
TL;DR for signs something was written by a human:
- Including anecdotes
- Written in the first person
- Tangents and nonlinear storytelling
I have a STEM background myself and spent a good bit of my career writing (relatively poorly in my opinion) technical documentation. I understand what you’re saying and I guess I didn’t make my point very well.
I was hoping people would understand that I was referring to the enshitification of internet search results - where every search leads to pages of results of entire articles about very simple topics that say basically nothing. It seems obvious to be, though I admit I’m making an assumption, that the vast majority of these articles are LLM generated fluff attempting to lure people to pages to generate ad revenue.