A Human's Guide To Detecting AI Generated Content

Ah, the classic dilemma of "I like using AI because it gives me a good sounding board. But how do I ensure I don't lose my voice, perspective or even my natural style?

Good question, now let's get into the nitty-gritty but a few disclaimers first. This is for both art and writing, though it leans more for writing side.

DISCLAIMER:

- This post is only intended to express the use of AI in an ethical fashion, not replacement of human voice and perspective.

- Unless you're putting effort into your work, you're not going to feel the satisfaction of the result. AI as a sounding board and something you can take base inspiration from is amazing, just... don't go around claiming that the base is yours.

- AI is great for generating ideas or helping you get out of a creative rut, but it's still not you. It doesn't have your quirks, your experiences, or your unique lens. That's what makes your work authentic—and authenticity is what truly resonates with your audience.

- "If you're not bothered to write it, I cannot be bothered to read it." Shoutout to SSears90 for bringing in with that statement from twitter. But it's very much true. Sometimes I read news articles or blogs, they sound so.... bland, they make me want to quit immediately. Don't do that to your project. Don't do that to your work that's "babe" and dear to you. You catch my drift?

AI in writing:

Contrary to your favorite stance of "Just stop using AI in your work, you blockhead", let me give you a more nuanced perspective of the matter.

You have an idea but you aren't able to push it out and can't find the right words for the life of you. So frustrating right?

So, instead of waiting for ages after ages for the idea to evolve, you decide you want to do it now and you find yourself sitting (or standing) in front of your device, ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude open in front of you, innocently inviting you into it's lure of "What can I help you with today?" As if that alone wasn't enough to make you draw out swords and fight it for the life of you, you say, "Fine. What's it going to hurt?"

With the prompt entered, idea tossed on the keyboard and the enter button smashed harder than your head with a hammer, the journey begins.

Lo and behold, you have paragraphs after paragraphs of writing that looks so good, so formatted and polished, even Shakespeare might have to do a double take. Or in the case of a rogue AI, L'etranger might have to do a triple take because AI wrote words like "surprisingly slow to act", "hissed whispered" with a side of a ketchup drenched monocle and "crystal spatulas". Really, GPTs? This is what you have come to?

Anyways, anyways! You read it once, you read it twice, it looks perfect, it almost looks like what you'd write, minus the over-flowery words like "Spectre bones" for example. Spectre usually refers to a ghost or all things dead but you get me. This is what happens when you let an AI go rogue on your writing!

If you want more fun poked at AI-Human collaboration of a blender-mix, "The Case of Kite, Ghosts, and Friendship?" might just be up your valley. The idea was initially a collaboration between me and Bard (old Gemini. We miss you, Bard.) but eventually, I decided to pull it out of the dead, and am working on writing it word by word. There are still going to be awkward phrases and awkward words, but it's intentional.

One of the ways to make sure you understand what you read—and no, this isn't AI-sponsored, or even brand-sponsored—why do people always assume that? But, it's "Rewordify.com" This site helps you by breaking down the larger blocky words into simplified language with some words in the parenthesis () to help you know the meaning of the word.