I banned my AI from sounding like AI

"AI has a writing style, or, at least, an alleged style. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude seem to communicate with a tendency toward formalism. The chatbots are earnest, sometimes too evenhanded or overly complimentary. There's a noticeable lack of personal flair, and no deeply held opinions. According to Grammarly, AI language tends to evoke "repetitive phrasing" and "robotic tone." Now, there are even AI buzzwords and phrases like pivotal and delve into and underscore."

"But the problem is bigger than simply sounding like an AI. Human speech is a time-tested neologism supply chain; people have a natural inventiveness when talking and writing. But as we increasingly communicate with chatbots and rely on AI agents to dissect concepts, summarize research reports, and synthesize internet searches, we're filtering a wide array of content through the stilted and bounded syntax of LLMs."

""AI may literally be putting words into our mouths, as repeated exposure leads people to internalize and reuse buzzwords they might not have chosen naturally," Tom Juzek, a professor at Florida State University, told Fast Company earlier this year. With colleagues, he recently identified a vocabulary list of AI-speak, including words like intricate, strategically, and garner. He also found that these words are now more likely to show up in unscripted podcasts, a strong sign of what's called "lexical seepage.""

AI-generated language often leans toward formalism, earnestness, repetitive phrasing, and a 'robotic tone', lacking personal flair and deeply held opinions. Common AI buzzwords such as pivotal, delve into, and underscore have become widespread. People sometimes avoid these terms to prevent sounding machine-generated. Heavy reliance on chatbots and AI agents channels diverse human expression through the bounded syntax of large language models. Academic research indicates that AI-based writing assistance can reduce linguistic diversity and shrink collective vocabulary. Repeated exposure to AI-speak causes people to internalize and reuse buzzwords, a phenomenon labeled lexical seepage, observable even in unscripted speech.

Read at Fast Company