And also… “Dude, everyone’s post sounds the same. Ew.”
Apr 04, 2026
I’m going to delve quickly back into the world of AI writing to discuss two things. Ready?
- What people say the smart way to use AI in writing is right now.
- Why AI-written blog posts are kind of super boring.
So, over on Medium, Florian Roth has an interesting post about why they are sick of reading AI-created posts.
Florian puts it pretty simply, “They all sound like the same guy.”
Similar to my post about how to spot AI in fiction, Florian talks about tells and writes:
His other tells include: “absurd certainty;” “the rhythm is too perfect;” and “it is desperate to sound perfect.”
These are all tone-related, but what’s cool (to me at least) about it is that there are certain sentence structure/word choices that create each of those qualities.
For absurd certainty even when you don’t know the context, it tends to be:
- Short sentences.
- Hyperbolic words.
- Actual use of the word “certainty.”
Florian gives these examples:
- “This changes everything.”
- “The old way is dead.”
- “We now know, with certainty, that…”
AI is a much more confident beast than Carrie Jones.
When it comes to perfect rhythm in the post (or the novel), it’s more about the structure of the post (or scene).
Florian again breaks it down like this:
“short hook big claim three neat support points dramatic conclusion
“And then those little sentence groups:
- “No vendor. No black box. No negotiation.”
- “They don’t pause. They don’t reflect. They guess.”
And finally—trying to sound super important. When I read it, it’s sort of like the blowhard at the bar or cocktail party or Thanksgiving dinner who is secretly insecure but thinks it’s ultra-manly to seem confident.
Florian gives these examples:
- “This is the moment everything changed.”
- “What happens next will redefine the industry.”
- “We are witnessing a fundamental shift in how humans create.”
All of this style of writing, over and over again, makes it feel like the same person is writing absolutely everything. If you’re into that style? That’s kind of awesome. If you’re not into that style? It’s super dull. To be fair, I sort of have had this issue before AI because I’m easily bored.
THE HOPE
Florian offers hope, writing,
”Not because they are necessarily wrong. Many of them are technically fine. But the moment it feels generated you automatically apply a discount to it. I think of it as an authenticity penalty. The content might be okay, but you know the cost of producing it was basically nothing. A few prompt lines and a model doing the rest.
“So the reader ends up investing more attention than the writer invested effort. That imbalance is noticeable.
“There is also another thing building up which I would describe as synthetic fatigue.
“People spend more and more time talking to generated voices. Support chats that clearly start with an AI agent. Replies that sound very polite, very structured, very careful — but also strangely empty. You can almost feel the system trying to keep you in the loop of friendly explanations instead of actually solving the problem.
“After a while that just becomes irritating.”
HOW IT CAN STILL BE USEFUL
So, I have critiques to this argument, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. I think a lot of what Linda Carroll says here is right.
She thinks that AI is helpful to writers not as a writer doling out words for them, but as a teacher or developmental editor.
She writes, “Here’s how a lot of writers use AI. They type in a prompt and then work with AI to refine it. Basically, the human becomes the editor. Change this or that, add nuance. Give it details. Type another prompt to edit it.
“They let AI pull the words out of its belly for them.
“But when you look at the economics of the AI industry, there’s only one smart way for writers to use AI. As a teacher.
“Don’t start with a prompt. Start with a blank page. Write your own sh*tty draft. As Hemingway said, all drafts are shite. It will suck. That’s okay.
“Then? Ask AI to critique. What’s wrong with it? Where is it weak? Does it use passive voice or active? Ask what the strongest paragraph is. Move it to the opening. Rearrange from there. Ask it if there’s anything in the draft that’s irrelevant and doesn’t belong. Is the ending weak or strong?
“Once you’ve moved the strongest paragraph to the top and deleted anything that was irrelevant, feed the edited draft back into it. Now attack sentences. Which are weak? How can you tighten it up, increase the pace?”
“Do not ask anything that’ll trigger praise mode. AI is a sycophant. It seeks to please. Tell it — don’t praise me, critique me.
“You want AI to know it’s functioning as a teacher.”
What do you all think? Yes, no?
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