If you’re a writer, especially a copywriter, and you’ve spent any time over the last three years watching the quick rise of AI technology—and how quickly these tools have been able to improve—then it’s understandable if you have a bit of anxiety over your future career prospects.
After all, what hope might you have when it takes you a few hours to pen a well-written, engaging, and valuable piece of content when ChatGPT can do something similar in a few seconds?
Well, the truth is, ChatGPT—and any other chatbot for that matter—doesn’t really create “something similar,” at least not in the strictest sense. Not to state the obvious, but AI content like that produced by most LLM models is, in a word, artificial.
Though it looks good at a glance, look a little more closely and you can definitely tell when a blog post was written by ChatGPT, a machine imitating what it thinks “authentic” writing looks like. That’s also why high-quality detectors, like AI Detector, can easily spot when a piece of writing has been AI-generated.
So, will AI replace writers? No, at least not anytime soon, and at least not where high-quality content is concerned. Even though the quality of what tools like ChatGPT can produce has improved over time, it still can’t hold a candle to a talented writer—and it may never.
On top of that, storytellers will always exist, and one of the best methods of telling a story is through the art of the written word. So, while you might be able to get ChatGPT to crank out a low-effort blog post in a matter of seconds, having it create a novel that’s a good read is a herculean task.
However, there are a few things to keep in mind if you want to ensure that your work rises above the sea of AI-generated content out there. That will take an understanding of how AI writing differs from what humans create.
AI can also be immensely helpful for writing in ways other than simply having ChatGPT do it for you, so we’ll also be diving into some ways that writers can leverage AI in their workflows.
Let’s dig in.
What Separates AI Writing From the “Real” Thing?
If you’ve ever read a piece of writing created by AI, chances are, you’ll be able to tell. Each sentence and paragraph will seem fine—and AI will occasionally make spelling and grammatical errors … just like a real person—but you can typically tell that there’s something off.
What is it about AI text that makes it so good yet so awkward at the same time … so artificial? Despite the rapid advancement of this technology, AI is a machine, and machines are rigid by nature—ones and zeros—and you can see that when you read AI-generated content.
Talented writers are able to instill their writing with a lot of dynamism, variation in word choice, sentence length, sentence structure—fun stuff like that. The downside is that AI writing can have a lot in common with low-effort content from less talented writers who lack the skill to connect with audiences in an engaging and fluid manner.
Comparatively, AI tends to write with much more repetition. There’s a certain rhythm, albeit a boring one, to everything an AI produces. Granted, clever prompts can help add a little more flare to what AI produces, but the results are still similar, structurally speaking.
The best AI detectors have figured out the difference between AI and human writing by boiling down the concepts discussed above into two distinct categories: burstiness and perplexity—or variance and randomness. The more of each that a piece of writing has, the better the likelihood that it has been written by a human.
Image credit: Scribbr
As you can see, perplexity can range from the most obvious choice to something that makes zero logical sense. A lot of the time, AI writing will comprise sentences that are constructed with the least amount of randomness. AI chatbots are, in many ways, similar to highly advanced “autocomplete” engines. Though they can be tuned and tweaked and engineered to generate natural language, ultimately, they provide responses with the least amount of randomness.
Burstiness is another reference to randomness, only this time rather than with word choice, it pertains to sentence structure and length. Often, AI sentences are constructed roughly the same way and are of similar length. That’s the reason for chatbots’ repetitive cadence that might bore you to death.
It has to, of course, be natural; a piece of writing with, say, 100% variance and randomness will probably be a mess and not seem like AI or human writing.
Great content, when compared to barebones, AI-generated content, has just the right amount of burstiness and perplexity. Too little, and it will come off as just as dull and monotonous as what ChatGPT produces; too much, and it’ll be an incomprehensible mess.
Now, let’s briefly discuss what you can do to leverage this knowledge in your own writing.
Tips for Not Writing Like an AI
While AI probably won’t be replacing writers anytime soon, as the recent writers’ strike shows, executive-level leadership is trying to do just that. It’s even possible that the success of that strike can lead to regulations being put into place to protect writers from AI taking their jobs.
However, AI-generated content is out there. And although it’s inferior to human writing, it’s still something that most writers will unfortunately have to compete with. For that reason, it’s important to ensure that your content stands above all that.
To ensure that you sound as much like a person as possible, here are some tips based on the concepts above to try to elevate your writing above that of a chatbot.
1. Add a Slice of Yourself
AI sticks to neutral, objective language, but you can go further than that by adding personality and opinion. Simple additions like, “In my experience…” or “I’ve often found…” can connect with readers on a personal level, adding depth that AI simply can’t.
2. Mix Up the Phrasing
AI loves repeating similar sentence structures—that concept known as burstiness—so to break out of that, vary your sentence lengths and styles. Try switching between short, direct sentences and longer, complex ones. It’s these shifts in pacing that make your writing feel more natural and less formulaic. And more natural writing will lead to content that’s more engaging, too.
3. Use Idioms and Slang Sparingly
Colloquialisms add character and style, making your writing sound familiar. But AI either avoids them or throws them in excessively. Use phrases like “a needle in a haystack,” “the whole nine yards,” and “at the end of the day” in moderation. Doing so will make your work feel relatable and down-to-earth.
4. Avoid AI’s Favorite Fillers
Robotic writing loves phrases like “it’s important to note” or “in the modern world.” Instead, be concise and for clean, snappy text. If a line feels fluffy, reword it for clarity. You’ll see your writing improve instantly, rising above all the AI content out there.
5. Show Empathy
AI has no grasp of emotion or reader connection. Add warmth by writing from a place of empathy, considering what the reader is feeling. Try lines like, “It’s hard to deny that…” or “We’ve all been there…” This puts the reader at ease, letting them feel connected to what they’re reading.
These tips will not only help ensure that your writing doesn’t sound anything like ChatGPT wrote it, but it will also make your content better in general so that it connects more easily with your audience.
Putting these sorts of tips into practice can be a little tricky. And if you want to be sure your writing doesn’t read like something generated by a chatbot, try running it through an AI detector. You’d be surprised by how helpful a good AI detector can be.
Double-Checking Yourself With an AI Detector
Though it might be surprising, an AI detector, especially a high-quality one, proves invaluable when trying to ensure that your content doesn’t read like a chatbot wrote it. Not only that, but these tools can also ensure that you don’t fall victim to a false positive.
An AI detector works by taking the text you submit and comparing it to what it knows about both AI text and human-written content, and then it gives you a percentage chance the text has been written by AI. On top of that, these tools also typically highlight any sentences (or paragraphs) in your submitted text that appear to be AI-generated.
So, the strategy is to use AI detectors to identify any trouble spots that could use a bit more of the human touch—sentences that need some tweaks to make them more original, for example.
Thus, although false positives are rare, AI detectors can detect such issues so you can eliminate them. This is important, especially if you’re a professional writer. False positives can impact your reputation. And if you’re a freelancer, this could lead to you getting less work. That’s why it’s good practice to use an AI detector to scan your text before you submit it to your publisher or upload it to your own blog, newsletter, or other publication.
False positives can tell you one of two things; first, they can indicate that the AI detector you’re using isn’t that accurate, either because its training data isn’t vast enough or because it’s outdated and not accounting for the latest chatbot models. So, it can be great to keep an eye on the current state of AI detectors.
Image credit: ZDNet
The other thing false positives can tell you, especially if you’re getting them on multiple detectors, is that perhaps this specific piece of writing isn’t quite hitting the mark and could use more pizzazz. So, if you run into a false positive, get a second opinion, and if that (or even a third opinion) is also showing signs of having been generated by AI, then you may need to give your content an overall revision.
These detectors prove that AI-powered tools can be a great benefit to writers who want to keep their content from seeming like it’s been generated by a chatbot. But what else can writers do with AI?
Leveraging AI To Improve Your Content
Like it or not, AI isn’t going anywhere. And though you could definitely choose to ignore this rapidly spreading technology, you’re truly better off trying to find ways to embrace it instead. Doing so will enhance your workflow and ultimately improve the quality of your content.
Here are some other ways you can leverage AI:
Use it as a great brainstorming partner
AI chatbots can prove to be an invaluable aid in the prewriting phase of the content development process. With the aid of a tool like ChatGPT or Claude, you can easily come up with ideas for your writing and form a solid outline. In other words, you can utilize AI to plan out your manuscript so that you can hit the ground running the moment you start writing.
This brainstorming can be extremely helpful if you’re trying to write content like blog posts and you’re having trouble coming up with enough topics to write about. It can even help you come up with the subheadings for each section if you’re having trouble with that.
Get all of your research in one spot
Although AI can sometimes provide you with incorrect responses or misinformation—even ChatGPT has a disclaimer at the bottom of the site telling you, “ChatGPT can make mistakes. Check important info.” However, that doesn’t stop it or any other chatbot from being a great source of research. Just make sure to double-check anything that you can’t verify on your own.
If you need to provide sources, Perplexity AI can help with that, giving you citations or just sharing where it found the information. With the correct precautions taken, AI can be a great help with learning about a wide range of subjects for all your research needs.
Have some assistance with editing and revision
Once you’ve had AI help you with the prewriting phase and taken the time to actually pen a piece of content, these same tools can help clean it up and make it the best it can be.
For starters, chatbots like ChatGPT can tell you if anything’s unclear or if there are any gaps in your writing. It’s probably not as effective as a human beta reader, but if you’re just writing a simple blog post, it can be more than enough. If you’re looking to cut or add content, then AI can point you in the right direction. All you really have to do is state what you’d like the AI to do, such as, “Would you check if this writing is confusing in spots?” or “Do I need to explain anything in more detail?”
Similarly, editing tools like Grammarly or ProWritingAid use AI and advanced algorithms to highlight any grammatical issues or suggest improvements to your text. Grammarly specifically allows you to select an audience to ensure that your tone matches. These tools are leagues better than the built-in spell checkers of both Word and Google Docs.
However, they still aren’t perfect and must be used with caution. Not only can these tools make mistakes, but their “style” of editing can leave some writing to read as though it has been “sterilized” and stripped of certain stylistic elements. That said, they are still an enormous benefit to any writer.
The Bottom Line
So, will AI replace writers? No. If anything, AI just elevates talented writers who can use the tools to inject true humanity into what they write in a way that’s engaging and brings value to readers. Outside of that, people will always love to tell stories, so the world will always have a place for any type of writer—like novelists, poets, essayists, and bloggers.
The best recommendation for any writer is to embrace AI as a means of upgrading and enhancing your process, from ideation to revision. Tools like ChatGPT, AI Detector, and Grammarly can prove to be beneficial in surprising ways. Rather than avoiding AI, learning to leverage these tools and others gives writers a powerful ally—not a competitor—and lets them achieve the kind of writing that genuinely connects with readers.
