I’m not going to suggest this article isn’t helpful but this:
It’s not some “Old Wives Tale” – it’s based on millennia of established knowledge;
is 100% AI slop (ed: training material). That’s where I stopped paying attention (ed: and shouldn’t have).
👉 “it’s not X it’s Y” is a a good indicator. Humans use this but AI fucking loves it, and generally in this order. “It’s X not Y” is a weaker indicator. This isn’t enough for me to be certain but it instantly triggers skepticism
👉 Clarifying something that was never in question to begin with. That’s not a subtle hint — it’s a dead giveaway. It’s contextual; humans use this rhetorical pattern, but not to deny something there is no existing implied suggestion of
👉 emdash is a weak indicator, but combined with the rest increases suspicion. “But this isn’t an emdash!” That’s because as search and replace was used to replace them with regular dash, but the usage is the same
👉 finishing a bullet with a semi-colon? (is that a thing? I’ve never seen anyone do it, AI or human — I’m going to go with atypical usage not indicative either way but I’m going to start looking for that as a pattern.)
👉 I used emojis instead of bullets because irony amuses me and it’s a very AI thing to do. If it didn’t trigger a question in your head of whether this comment is written by AI, it should have. Pay attention.
Oh my god, right? I’m so used to it at this point that I don’t even have to do forensics on it because it will inherently annoy the fuck outta me whenever I see it lmao
It always reads like an edgy 12 year old with main character syndrome wrote it.
Not 11.
Not 13.
But 12 — the prime of youth — a microtruth vibe of quiet acknowledgement.
And when that feeling shifts?
That’s when you truly see the excess needless paragraph indents for what they are.
Not a desperate vye for the appearance of being deep — never a desperate vye —
But a signature of lolsorandom AI speak trying to look a credible source.
👉i have an idea
👉i think it’s a good idea
👉which mean’s it’s a bad idea
👉do you think
👉👈i mean really think
👈it’d be okay if we kissed
👈and i mean really kissed
👈with butt grabbies and everything
👈under the finger gun bullets list
This is an anecdote but I’ve found that website years before any LLM ever got reported on, circa 2012 maybe? Idk I don’t remember. I used it for other shoelacong patterns as well between maybe 2012 - 2017 when I was into sneakers and tried to prettify the laces when I realized I’m not into collecting overpriced shoes made from poor quality materials.
Personally I appreciate the reminder how to suss out AI slop.
About finishing a bullet point with semicolon, I only encounter that when I started working 10 years ago and got into a big project with a lot of reports and planning documents were written and revised. Seems to line up with Merriam Webster’s definition
i could see ending a bullet point with a semicolon if you were turning a nested list into bullet points. by nested list, i mean something where you are using the semicolons as your larger dividers and your commas as your smaller dividers (eg: our favorite Normans: Norman, Ohio; Norman, Utah; Norman, Alberta; and Norman Johnson) normanly in that sitiation i’d pull the semicolon off the end, but that’s more of a taste decision. brevity. blah blah blah. the semicolon at the end, does it add to clarity or detract, or nothing at all? if detract or nothing, get rid of it.
Also, thank you for your hyper-vigilance. It amuses me, and for your sense of irony in using AI to criticize something that predates AI as being written by AI.
For the record I used AI mannerisms, but it was 100% human written. But anyone would be forgiven for thinking otherwise because I deliberately invoked AI-stylings in my writing.
I’m not going to suggest this article isn’t helpful but this:
is 100% AI slop (ed: training material). That’s where I stopped paying attention (ed: and shouldn’t have).
👉 “it’s not X it’s Y” is a a good indicator. Humans use this but AI fucking loves it, and generally in this order. “It’s X not Y” is a weaker indicator. This isn’t enough for me to be certain but it instantly triggers skepticism
👉 Clarifying something that was never in question to begin with. That’s not a subtle hint — it’s a dead giveaway. It’s contextual; humans use this rhetorical pattern, but not to deny something there is no existing implied suggestion of
👉 emdash is a weak indicator, but combined with the rest increases suspicion. “But this isn’t an emdash!” That’s because as search and replace was used to replace them with regular dash, but the usage is the same
👉 finishing a bullet with a semi-colon? (is that a thing? I’ve never seen anyone do it, AI or human — I’m going to go with atypical usage not indicative either way but I’m going to start looking for that as a pattern.)
👉 I used emojis instead of bullets because irony amuses me and it’s a very AI thing to do. If it didn’t trigger a question in your head of whether this comment is written by AI, it should have. Pay attention.
I do almost all of those things organically and I hate that people are trying to reduce AI detection to stuff like this.
The real dead giveaways for AI are unmotivated choices.
Oh my god, right? I’m so used to it at this point that I don’t even have to do forensics on it because it will inherently annoy the fuck outta me whenever I see it lmao
It always reads like an edgy 12 year old with main character syndrome wrote it.
Not 11.
Not 13.
But 12 — the prime of youth — a microtruth vibe of quiet acknowledgement.
And when that feeling shifts?
That’s when you truly see the excess needless paragraph indents for what they are.
Not a desperate vye for the appearance of being deep — never a desperate vye — But a signature of lolsorandom AI speak trying to look a credible source.
Finger gun list? 100% AI
👉Bad Ideas👈
👉i have an idea
👉i think it’s a good idea
👉which mean’s it’s a bad idea
👉do you think
👉👈i mean really think
👈it’d be okay if we kissed
👈and i mean really kissed
👈with butt grabbies and everything
👈under the finger gun bullets list
Beep boop zoop
This is an anecdote but I’ve found that website years before any LLM ever got reported on, circa 2012 maybe? Idk I don’t remember. I used it for other shoelacong patterns as well between maybe 2012 - 2017 when I was into sneakers and tried to prettify the laces when I realized I’m not into collecting overpriced shoes made from poor quality materials.
You’re right. I was wrong. Sorry. Still leaving it because I think it’s solid analysis, but I’ll cop that it’s not perfect.
Personally I appreciate the reminder how to suss out AI slop.
About finishing a bullet point with semicolon, I only encounter that when I started working 10 years ago and got into a big project with a lot of reports and planning documents were written and revised. Seems to line up with Merriam Webster’s definition
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semicolon
i could see ending a bullet point with a semicolon if you were turning a nested list into bullet points. by nested list, i mean something where you are using the semicolons as your larger dividers and your commas as your smaller dividers (eg: our favorite Normans: Norman, Ohio; Norman, Utah; Norman, Alberta; and Norman Johnson) normanly in that sitiation i’d pull the semicolon off the end, but that’s more of a taste decision. brevity. blah blah blah. the semicolon at the end, does it add to clarity or detract, or nothing at all? if detract or nothing, get rid of it.
I agree with your last portion fot using the semicolon. I do sometimes try to shoe horn it in though lol
Don’t you talk like that about Ian.
Dude’s site was used to train AI.
Also, thank you for your hyper-vigilance. It amuses me, and for your sense of irony in using AI to criticize something that predates AI as being written by AI.
Chef’s kiss.
and these are nice shoes too. has anyone ever noticed how nice these shoes are?
For the record I used AI mannerisms, but it was 100% human written. But anyone would be forgiven for thinking otherwise because I deliberately invoked AI-stylings in my writing.
I’ve been sharing that link around for a decade. It was written way before anyone had even heard of LLMs.
Edit: I noticed you acknowledged the error. Hats off to you for that.