There is a world of difference between being merely an AI-assisted, human-written article and an unadulterated AI Slop.
I can’t lie—back in 2023 or so, most of the content that I made were AI-generated albeit were my own ideas. ChatGPT used to be something fresh and exciting back then.
But as the years pass and as AI continuously produce mass slop in a recursive fashion, I’ve grown weary of reading the same sentence structure again and again.
Once I read or hear something that I am sure is a tell-tale sign of the content being purely AI-made, I immediately click off the website or video. Because I am pretty sure that the creator of such didn’t even bother editing it a bit or adding his own human touch to it.
I am not against the use of AI assistance in content creation. What I am against though is the careless and lackadaisical use of AI in writing an entire work and passing it off as actually being worth something.
I compiled in this article some tell-tale signs or dead giveaways that what you are reading or watching is actually AI-made with barely any human-in-the-loop. They are stored in my GPT’s memory, So I asked the AI with the following prompt:
Based on our conversations, what are some hallmarks of an AI-written article that I told you about?
Here are its answers:
How Can You Tell If Something is Written by AI?
Stylistic Tells
1. Formulaic contrasts: AI often uses antithesis structures like:
- “Not just X, but Y”
- “It’s not about X, it’s about Y” These sound rehearsed and unnatural.
2. Generic openings: Introductions that begin with phrases like:
- “In today’s fast-paced digital world…”
- “By automating tasks…”
- “Imagine a world where…” feel canned and templated.
3. Overused list patterns: AI tends to default to three-part lists, such as:
- “Speed, accuracy, and control” This structure appears too frequently to feel human.
4. Buzzword stuffing: Words like robust, seamless, pivotal, foster, safeguard, and underscore are often overused and add little substance. They’re a common crutch in AI writing.
5. Overly motivational or inflated tone: Content that sounds like a sales pitch or tries too hard to be inspiring is another marker. It often feels exaggerated and disconnected from the subject.
Structural Patterns
1. Excessive use of em dashes and semicolons: AI sometimes relies on these to stretch or complicate sentences. You prefer shorter, more direct constructions.
2. Comma overload: Unnaturally placed commas that break the flow are often a sign the writing was generated.
3. Repetitive phrasing: AI tends to restate the same idea in different words to lengthen content. This is flagged as filler.
Prompt to Make Something Less AI-Sounding
Rewrite the content to avoid AI-generated patterns. Specifically:
- Remove any “not just X, but Y” or similar contrast-based sentence structures.
- Avoid starting sentences with “By” or “In today’s fast-paced world.”
- Eliminate three-item lists. If a list is needed, restructure into a simpler, less patterned form.
- Do not use words like: crucial, vital, robust, seamless, pivotal, safeguard, underscores, bolster, foster, juggle.
- Avoid overused motivational tone or sales-like phrasing.
- Break up long sentences with too many commas. Use shorter, clear sentences instead.
- Do not use em dashes or semicolons.
- Maintain a natural, grounded tone that sounds human and practical.Postface
If you are trying to write articles for your website to rank in Google SERPs and you believe that ‘quantity > quality’, you would be mistaken.
To the contrary, AI slop might be harming your business because of how Google’s recent SEO update is now penalizing content that offers no value.
Go with human-written content. Humans will never go out of vogue. It would only be a matter of time before we put a premium on “Human-powered” over “AI-powered” products again.
Reliebo 