[cddotdotslash]

It’s incredibly annoying to read. So many super short sentences with the “not just X. Also Y” format. Little hooks like “The attack vector?”

“Not fancy security tools. Not expensive antivirus software. Just asking my coding assistant…”

I actually feel like AI articles are becoming easier to spot. Maybe we’re all just collectively noticing the patterns.

[c0nsumer]

I'm regularly asked by coworkers why I don't run my writing through AI tools to clean it up and instead spend a time iterating over it, re-reading, perhaps with a basic spell checker and maybe grammar check.

That's because, from what I've seen to date, it'd take away my voice. And my voice -- the style in which I write -- is my value. It's the same as with art... Yes, AI tools can produce passable art, but it feels soulless and generic and bland. It lacks a voice.

[SchemaLoad]

It also slopifies your work in a way that's immediately obvious. I can tell with high confidence when someone at work runs their email through ChatGPT and it makes me think less of the person now that I have to waste time reading through an overly verbose email with very little substance to it when they could have just sent the prompt and saved us all the time.

[troyvit]

I manage an employee from another country and speaks English as a second language. The way they learned English gives them a distinct speaking style that I personally find convincing, precise and engaging. I started noticing their writing losing that voice, so I asked if they were using an LLM and they were. It was a tough conversation because as a native English speaker I have it easy, so I tried to frame my side of the conversation as purely my personal observation that I could see the change in tone and missed the old one. They've modified their use of LLMs to restore their previous style, but I still wonder if I was out of line socially for saying anything. English is tough, and as a manager I have a level of authority that is there even when I think it isn't. I don't know the point, except that I'm glad you're keeping your voice.

[genghisjahn]

I often ask for ai to give only grammar and spelling corrections, and then only a change set I apply manually. In other words the same functionality as every word processor since…y2k?

[paulddraper]

Every time you let AI speak for you, it gets better at sounding like you — and you get worse at it.

That’s the trade: convenience for originality.

The more you outsource your thoughts, your words, your tone — the easier it becomes to forget how to do it yourself.

AI doesn’t steal your voice.

It just trains you to stop using it.

/a

[raw_anon_1111]

I consider myself to be an above average writer and a great editor. I will just throw my random thoughts about something that happened at work, ask ChatGPT to keep digging deeper in my question, I will give it my opinion of what I should do. Ask it to give me the “devil’s advocate” and the “steel man opinion” and then ask it to write a blog post [1].

I then edit it for tone, get rid of some of the obvious AI tells. Make some edits for voice, etc.

Then I throw it into another season of ChatGPT and ask it does it sound “AI written”. It will usually call out some things and give me “advice”. I take the edits that sound like me.

Then I put the text through Grok, Gemini and ask it the same thing. I make more edits and keep going around until I am happy with it. By the time I’m done, it sounds like I something I would write.

You can make AI generated prose have a “voice” with careful prompting and I give it some of my writing.

Why don’t I just write it myself if I’m going through all that? It helps me get over writers block and helps me clarify my thoughts. My editing skills are better than my writing skills.

As I do it more and give it more writing samples, it is a faster process to go from bland AI to my “voice”

[1] my blog is really not for marketing. I don’t link to it anywhere and I don’t even have my name attached to it. It’s more like a public journal.

[tombert]

I agree. I use Grammarly for finding outright mistakes (spelling and the like, or a misplaced comma or something), but I don't listen to any of the suggestions for writing.

I feel like when I try writing through Grammarly, it feels mechanical and really homogeneous. It's not "bad" exactly, but it sort of lacks anything interesting about it.

I dunno. I'm hardly some master writer, but I think I'm ok at writing things that interesting to read, and I feel Grammarly takes that away.

[chipsrafferty]

Your voice? The style in which you write? That's gold - no one can take that away from you. And honestly? You're brave for admitting that.

[madsprite]

The thing is, ask it something right away and it'll use its own voice. Give it lots of data from your own writing through examples and extrapolations on your speech patterns and it will impersonate your voice more. It's like how it can impersonate Trump, it has lots of examples to pull from, you? it doesn't know you. LLMs needs large amount of input to give it a really good output.

[shermantanktop]

I said almost exactly that to a coworker a few hours ago. My writing is me, it’s who I am. But I know that is not true for everyone, and in particular non-native speakers.

I just detest that AI writing style, especially for business writing. It’s the kind of writing that leaves the reader less informed for the effort.

[poly2it]

It's also exactly the type of writing you see on LinkedIn (yuck), so this article really goes full circle!

[awesome_dude]

FTR I sometimes use AI to make my writing more "professional" because I rite narsty like

I've recently had to say "My CV has been cleaned up with AI, but there are no hallucinations/misrepresentations within it"

[anon84873628]

Hm, why do you have to say that? A CV is expected to be super polished and not necessarily consistent with the rest of your writing, right?

[kevin_thibedeau]

If you have access to Microsoft Word, I'd customize the grammar checker settings to flag more than what is enabled by default. They have a lot of helpful rules that many are oblivious to because it's all buried deep in the preferences. Then adopt the stance of taking the green lines under advisement but ignore them if your original words suit your preference. That will get you polished up without submitting to AI editorial mundanity.

[kenjackson]

Honestly, the issue is that most people are poor writers. Even “good” professional writing, like the NY Times science section, can be so convoluted. AI writing is predictable now, but generally better than most human writing. Yet can be an irritating at the same time.

[maest]

It reads like Linkedin slop, not AI slop.