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"But here's the thing"

Is it really so hard to write your articles by yourself? The blandest tone imaginable, all the usual LLM tells in the sentence structure. You are polluting HN and the broader internet by posting this publicly.

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Honestly... I think I've been reading too much AI content, because I 100% wrote that. I do use AI to help make outlines and gather thoughts. But the Article was written by me.

Did you do any kind of AI assisted proofreading or grammar? So much of the structure of the article screams AI.

Stuff like this:

> Each one of these, on its own, is just a bug. Together, they’re a culture.

And the headings starting with "The"

AI seems to have adopted a style reminiscent of startup marketers circa 2020 - really simple, lots of one liner quips and far too much incredulity about minor things. Now we've come full circle!


I do usually do a pass through Grammarly, and there are some times when I ask AI for help getting my point across. But I always try to change what they write into something I feel I would say.

I'm the first to say I'm not the best writer...


> I always try to change what they write into something I feel I would say.

Or is this also true: "I don't change what a LLM writes so long as it doesn't seem like something I would write"

It's just like vibe coding it's the new normal. We don't notice our own unique voices when writing. But as a collective we do notice LLM voices.

Submissions are different than comments in HN rules - don't worry about it.


If you're being honest, I apologize. I find it a bit difficult to believe but maybe it's really that the style is everywhere now. Partially it's sentence pattern cliches:

>Not just sell. Not just ship. Use.

>The honest read ... The hopeful read ...

>The grumbling isn’t about features. It’s about the texture of using the products.

>Yes, Apple Silicon is incredible. Yes, the Watch saved lives. Yes, the iPhone got better cameras

There's also bizarre not-quite-landing uncanny metaphors that LLMs love to do:

>Today's Apple ships friction and treats it like background radiation.

>The texture changed.

>And the rot follows that exact line.

If you're surrounded by this kind of writing, it may be good to get other inspirations. It's bad!


English is not my first language, although I am ok with it, whenever I write I always pump it through an AI first with a prompt of "Make it better English", especially if its a business email with English speaking clients.

I enjoyed your article and shared it on my family-geek-whatsapp group


13x 'not ' found in that article. That's what AI's love to write.

This article on the other hand has 1: https://routerjockey.com/introducing-graphiant-the-future-of...

I don't mind either way, but reading through the Tim Cook one without opening the comments on HN, I was 99.9% sure I'm reading AI.


The good old "this clearly photoshopped" of the 2020's era.

LLM's got their inspiration from popular sources written by humans. Now humans are exposed to LLM on repeat basis every day. It looks only normal that writing done with or without LLMs tend to converge to the same style.


“Here’s the thing” is also a longtime cliche in podcasts, from the before-times when ChatGPT didn’t yet exist.

Or "It turns out..." Somehow it just bugs me, and I'm usually so laidback

Writing well is hard but unfortunately people like taking shortcuts and making it our problem

It’s futile, the Internet as we knew it is over. The Great Enshittification of the West is well past the halfway point.

of the West?

That is a thing may humans say, though. Doesn’t mean this is AI slop.

There are several other LLM smells in that article.

The author just responded to say that the article is not an LLM product.

There are other people who noticed the LLM smells as well.

That's an AI slop tell, isn't it?

I wonder if AI is going to drive certain idioms into extinction (aside from being used by AI).


I don’t think there are AI slop tells anymore. Humans have been reading AI slop for a couple years now, so it plausible enough that any one person will have picked up a couple AI-like phrases.

oh my god it finally happened, a downvoted danabramov comment

if you cry wolf enough times, people finally wake up

This moaning is so fucking boring. Yeah, so what. For what we know this moan can be just some random openclaw instance digging for karma. I come here for discussion, not to read 50% “AI slop” comments.

Agreed ! So what

and I’ve been to Hastings, and I’ve been to Brighton, I’ve been to Eastbourne too



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