This is a list of writing and formatting conventions typical of AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, with real examples taken from Wikipedia articles, drafts, comments, and other content. It is a field guide to help detect undisclosed AI-generated content on Wikipedia: while some of the signs may be broadly applicable, some may not apply in a non-Wikipedia context.[a] Not all text featuring these indicators is AI-generated, as the large language models that power AI chatbots are trained on human writing, including Wikipedia. Many elements of AI writing can be found in editorials, blogs, or fan fiction.
The Impact of AI-Generated Text on the Internet
The proliferation of AI-generated and AI-assisted text on the internet is feared to contribute to a degradation in semantic and stylistic diversity, factual accuracy, and other negative...
The Impact of AI-Generated Text on the Internet
The proliferation of AI-generated and AI-assisted text on the internet is feared to contribute to a degradation in semantic and stylistic diversity, factual accuracy, and other negative...
Tropes - AI Writing Pattern Directory
The definitive reference for identifying AI writing patterns. Learn to spot the tropes that give away AI-generated text.
Ethan Mollick on Twitter / X
There is a lot being written about the stylistic tells of AI writing (em-dashes, etc.) but this paper looks at AI narrative tellsFascinating differences between AI & human narrative, and asking AI to write in different styles doesn't do much to change it https://t.co/azkRHz34NQ pic.twitter.com/oTxSGBNYYE— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) May 28, 2026
Jimmy Wales Says Wikipedia Could Use AI. Editors Call It the 'Antithesis of Wikipedia'
Wikipedia's founder said he used ChatGPT in the review process for an article and thought it could be helpful. Editors replied to point out it was full of mistakes.
I pulled ~90,000 Reddit posts about what makes writing "sound like AI" to determine the biggest AI-slop giveaways (Part 2)
674 votes, 228 comments. The majority of people can instantly tell when writing is generated by AI. For those who don't intend to get into the weeds…
The Most Famous AI Writing Tic Is Also the Most Mysterious
Why chatbots love “it’s not X, it’s Y”
How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI?
In a random sample of 10,000 webpages collected in July 2026, one-in-ten show signs of being written or substantially edited by AI.
Writing with AI help can shift your opinions | Cornell Chronicle
Artificial intelligence-powered writing assistants that autocomplete sentences or offer “smart replies” not only put words into people’s mouths, they also put ideas into their heads, according to new research.
God Damn AI is making me dumb
It's so god damn tempting to use AI to write. Whether it is articles, code, or documents. I feel like using AI is diminishing my ability to write myself. ...
Wikipedia:WikiProject AI Cleanup
Welcome to WikiProject AI Cleanup, a collaboration to combat the increasing problem of poorly written AI-generated content on Wikipedia. If you would like to help, add yourself as a participant in the project, inquire on the talk page, and see the to-do list.
How easy is it to spot AI writing?
With AI writing becoming increasingly commonplace, how can we spot it and what difference does it make?
The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab
Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our lab Slack to share news, experiences, and memes. We had several long and grueling lab meetings talk
More Typos, Fewer Em Dashes: Writers Are Creating an Anti-AI ‘Literary Counterculture’
Novelists, journalists, and power LinkedIn posters are embracing first-person narratives and idiosyncrasies to avoid being mistaken for chat bots.
Ryan Singer on Twitter / X
Tools like Cursor hint at where AI-driven user interfaces are going. Chat is only 10%. Most of the output (and UI) is a domain-specific representation of the state of the work.In the case of AI coding, 90% of what you're looking at and thinking about is the IDE, the diffs, the… pic.twitter.com/z0nTUx4WnM— Ryan Singer (@rjs) June 13, 2025
The Impact of AI-Generated Text on the Internet
By mid-2025, roughly 35% of newly published websites were classified as AI-generated or AI-assisted.