9 Easy (And Slightly Painful) Ways To Tell If Something Was Written By AI

AI writing is everywhere now. LinkedIn posts. Product reviews. Business captions. Motivational threads. Even your classmate’s assignment suddenly sounds like a TED Talk narrated by a robot therapist. You know what? Most AI-generated writing isn’t bad anymore.

The scary part is: it’s becoming almost believable.

But if you look carefully, AI still leaves behind little fingerprints. Tiny habits. Weird phrases. Probably like this post but I dare you to try. Overly polished encouragement that no actual human would naturally say in a normal conversation.

So here are 9 very real ways to spot AI-written content before the robots fully infiltrate humanity. (If you’re reading this, congratulations. You are probably human.)

1. The Em Dash — AI’s Favourite Punctuation Weapon

You know this thing?

—

That long dramatic line.

AI LOVES it! Not once in a while. Constantly.

Example:

Humans use commas. AI writes like it’s narrating a movie trailer, and once you notice it, you can’t unsee it. Some AI-generated posts have enough em dashes to qualify as Morse code. You decide.

2. The Same Suspiciously “Professional” Words Keep Appearing

Certain words appear so often in AI writing that they’ve basically become NPC dialogue.

Examples:

• quietly

• testament

• seamless

• robust

• leverage

• landscape

  
  

Especially:

Why is every company “quietly” doing things? Humans announce products.AI makes it sound like companies are sneaking around at 3am deploying firmware updates in trench coats.

Also, “testament” is another classic.

Example:

Nobody casually says “testament” in real life unless they are:

1. a historian

2. writing a Shakespeare essay

3. ChatGPT

   
   

3. Fake-Deep Marketing Philosophy

AI loves pretending everything is emotionally profound.

Example:

Wow. Revolutionary.

Next:

Sometimes a burger is just a burger.

AI tends to over-romanticise basic business concepts because it was trained on millions of motivational marketing posts written by people trying very hard to sound wise on LinkedIn.

4. Unnecessary Encouragement Nobody Asked For

AI has the energy of a motivational speaker trapped inside customer support.

Example:

Or:

Winning what exactly?

A lot of AI writing constantly reassures the reader even when reassurance is completely unnecessary.

You could ask:

And somehow the reply becomes:

Brother, I just need the PDF.

5. Overdramatic “Secret Knowledge” Hooks

AI LOVES pretending every sentence contains forbidden wisdom.

Examples:

• “Nobody talks about this.”

• “No one told you this.”

• “This changes everything.”

• “Most people still don’t realise…”

Then the advice turns out to be:

Thank you, ancient prophecy machine.

This happens because AI has absorbed years of clickbait culture and thinks every sentence needs Marvel movie trailer energy.

6. The Cringey “No Gimmicks” Business Line

This one appears everywhere now.

Every AI-generated business post sounds like someone opening an artisanal coffee brand in 2017.

The funny part?If you have to repeatedly announce you’re not using marketing gimmicks… it starts sounding exactly like marketing.

Real authenticity usually doesn’t introduce itself with a slogan.

7. Constant “Most People Are Struggling” Reassurance

AI is weirdly obsessed with telling you:

Example:

This isn’t always wrong.But AI repeats it so often that it starts sounding like emotional DLC.

It tries very hard to sound comforting because it has learned that supportive writing gets positive feedback.

Eventually every paragraph starts feeling like therapy mixed with a LinkedIn post.

8. Everything Is Somehow “A Common Issue”

No matter what problem you have, AI responds like a doctor trying not to alarm you.

Example:

Really?

Because I just asked why my laptop smells like burnt fish whenever I open Excel.

AI constantly normalises situations because it’s trained to avoid panic and keep conversations calm.

Which means even catastrophic nonsense sometimes gets treated like:

9. Extremely Vague Instructions That Sound Helpful But Aren’t

I sincerely HATE this. This is one of the biggest giveaways.

Example:

WHAT DOES XXX LOOK LIKE?

WHERE AM I SCROLLING?

WHY ARE THERE 47 MENUS?

AI often explains things confidently without understanding what humans actually need visually or contextually.Humans usually say:

AI says:

Ah yes. Very useful.

My humble human conclusion, not written by AI

Ironically, the funniest thing about AI writing is that it’s trying very hard to sound human.

Sometimes too hard.

Real humans:

• ramble

• make weird jokes

• contradict themselves

• say unnecessary things

• forget punctuation

• sound emotional without trying

• 
  

AI tends to sound:

• polished

• reassuring

• strangely motivational

• overly structured

• suspiciously calm

• 
  

At least for now.

So the next time you see:

There’s a decent chance a robot wrote it, and quietly. ;) If you geniunely use em-dash, I am sorry to say, just stop it.