The Great Enshittification of the Written Word
6 tell-tale signs your content is generated by a robot
As with many who grew up in the U.S., throughout middle and high school, we were assigned to read many of the classic works, some I remember and many I’ve long forgotten. 1984, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Tale of Two Cities, Moby Dick, and many more. For some oddity, unlike many classmates who survived on CliffsNotes, I actually read those books. Did I enjoy them? At the time, I don’t think I did, but a million years later, I still remember bits and pieces. I suppose they were classics for a reason….but for some to this day, I fail to understand why.
Fast forward to now, we’re living through a systemic degradation of the written word (and more broadly, our society; but that’s a discussion for a different day). AI has made this possible, turning anyone with a ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude account into a content factory – endlessly churning out drivel. But be careful, heed this warning, similar to The Sourcer’s Apprentice, don’t meddle with forces that you’re not equipped to control. For those who may not be familiar, I’ve authored or co-authored over ten books on business topics – AI, generative AI, B2B marketing, data analytics, and the like. I like to tell people that I started writing before “AI made it cool.”
As a product marketing manager (PMM) working in B2B tech who specializes in data, analytics, and AI, the unprecedented proliferation of AI-generated detritus that some call “content” pains me to no end. I’ve mentioned this before but will say it again, the fastest path to mediocrity is to overly rely on AI to generate content. Here’s a discussion on this circa 2024.
And this isn’t new, it’s not earth-shattering, groundbreaking, game-changing, or any other of those hyperbolic, inflated modifiers that are popular in today’s parlance. You see and live this every day. The faux-”thought leaders” on LinkedIn today speak with a homogeneous voice that is devoid of meaning, structure, and personality. It’s like my old piano – it’s out of tune and flat.
To help my fellow PMMs and fellow writers get out of their own way in creating perfectly formatted commoditized works of nothingness, I’m going to outline the telltale signs that your content was written by a robot in a series of blogs. But, if you miss a few posts, don’t worry, the lesson is quite simple.
Don’t outsource your brain to AI. That’s it. It’s no secret. Try putting pen to paper, or if you’re like me, fingers to keys. Creating something interesting isn’t like Ronco; you can’t set it and forget it. Yes, it may be hard, but you’ll have to exercise the thing in your noggin that consumes the 12-25 watts of energy each day[1].
So, without fanfare, here are the lessons that we’ll cover in this series. I’ll update the hyperlinks (if I remember) as I publish each one.
The six warning signs that your content was generated without thought:
Linguistic red flags that scream "bot"
Punctuation patterns that feel mechanical
The "humanizer" workflow giveaways
Structural rigidity that lacks human flow
Content depth and authenticity issues - covered in other blogs.
The personality void problem
If you want to avoid the noid, have a personality, and write with purpose, subscribe to receive future posts, share with your friends, and comment. Like it, thumbs up it, do something to let me know that you think this is worth continuing.
[1] Liriano, Natasha. 2023. “Brain-Inspired Computing Can Help Us Create Faster, More Energy-Efficient AI.” Taking Measure (NIST Blog), May 10, 2023. https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/brain-inspired-computing-can-help-us-create-faster-more-energy-efficient.
About David Sweenor
Books: Artificial Intelligence | Generative AI Business Applications | The Generative AI Practitioner’s Guide | The CIO’s Guide to Adopting Generative AI | Modern B2B Marketing | The PMM’s Prompt Playbook
Founder of TinyTechGuides, David Sweenor is a top 25 analytics and AI thought leader and influencer, international speaker, consultant and advisor, and acclaimed author with several patents. He is a product marketing leader, analytics practitioner, and specialist in the business application of AI, ML, data science, IoT, and business intelligence.
With over 25 years of hands-on business analytics experience, Sweenor has supported organizations including Alation, Alteryx, TIBCO, SAS, IBM, Dell, and Quest, in advanced analytic roles.
Follow David on Twitter @DavidSweenor and connect with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsweenor/.
Need help with PMM? Let me know.
David, this is a fabulous post. I couldn't agree with you more. I have found myself getting intellectually lazy and fearing for the future of humanity! I just read a book about the 19th century Luddites who smashed industrial machines. They actually made a lot of progress in human rights.. which is really what it was about. We need a movement based on your ideas. People have to dig in and take back their humanity. We have to fight the enshittification of the written word!