Our resident AI expert, Grace Patterson, explores how to use AI as your co-writer without losing your voice (or your sanity).
To some, AI has become a dirty word. A harbinger, generating the end of creative thought and humanism. The beginning of our end as individuals. This kind of thinking is particularly prevalent among writers, poets, and other creatives who believe AI will snuff out our souls. As a content writer of 15 years you’d think my opinion would be very much the same, but I find this stance a little too hardline (and far too dramatic). To the shock of some of my former colleagues, I have become very pro AI. Something that would appall my younger self who often sat penning a poem in a ratty, dog-earred notebook on the steps of my uni’s drama theatre.
Don’t get me wrong, while I understand where the purists are coming from, I see AI is the next logical step in the human journey. It is not a replacement for human creativity or storytelling, it is simply a tool. A means of organising thoughts, increasing productivity and spurring on new and exciting ideas. While I think we all have had our share of eerie interactions with ChatGPT that have our lizard brains whispering thoughts of Skynet and HAL 9000, it’s important to understand that LLMs are what we make them. That is, they are learning from us, what we record, and what we write.
It’s Giving AI: The Telltale Signs of AI-Generated Content
That’s not to say that they get it right all the time. AI is a repository of human knowledge phrased back to us in patterns of our own making. Models are trained “in” human, but they will never “be” human. I’ve been experimenting with different AI models from the very beginning, with a particular focus on Open AI’s ChatGPT. While it’s been amazing seeing the LLM tech evolve with each model’s release, it’s important to realise its limitations.
AI is still prone to hallucinations, and despite the fact model 4 of ChatGPT passed the Turing test, there are still many AI “tells” in content generated by AI. Those of us who have daily dealings with AI will know many of them. After spending time with AI content, I’ve found these are some of the biggest AI giveaways:
- Words That Give “AI”: My personal peeves are: dynamic, delve, landscape, evolving, context, insight, nuanced, perspective, comprehensive, framework, robust, pivotal, transformative, and myriad.
- Cringy Clichés: Phrases like “It’s not about X, it’s about Y,” “In fact,” “Clearly,” “As a result,” “Suppose that,” “Wouldn’t you agree that,” “In conclusion,” “In summary,” “In fact,” “To put it simply,” “To sum up,” and “The question remains.”
- Polished Prose and Formality: Together these words and cringy clichés create super flowery, formal prose that come off like a cover letter for your first job.
- Sentence Soup: Long-winded sentences that feel like they’re going somewhere but never actually arrive. Like a high schooler trying to make up word count.
- Formatting Faux Pas: There’s usually an over-reliance on em dashes over the use of brackets or commas, and in titles you’ll see AI has a penchant for colons.
- List Overkill: Numbered lists or bullet points that painstakingly point out every single bloody possibility (and yes, the irony is not lost on me here, especially as I’m about to launch into another list).
Dancing with the Machine: How to Use AI Without Losing Your Voice
So how can we use AI to generate content that still sounds human, and more importantly, like you?
- Share Your Stories and Feelings: Infuse your writing with your own thoughts, emotions, and experiences. AI can’t replicate human experience.
- Mix Up Your Sentences: Vary your sentence lengths. Start short. Punchy. Then add some longer ones that make it sound like a convo with an old friend.
- Keep It Casual: While this might not go for all of your projects, in most cases you want to use casual language and contractions. “Can’t” instead of “cannot,” “it’s” instead of “it is.”
- Sprinkle in Some Humor: Add a joke, pun, or a cheeky aside where it fits. AI doesn’t do humor very well.
- Get Sensory: Add sensory details. What you saw, heard, or even smelled. These details make your writing more vivid and immersive.
- Ask Questions: Throw in rhetorical questions to get your readers thinking. Make it feel like a conversation rather than a lecture.
- Ditch the Clichés: AI loves a cliché. Swap them out for fresh, original expressions that are unique to you.
- Find Your Voice: Once you’ve got the draft down, go through and tweak it to sound like you. Change words and phrases to match your tone and style.
Introducing ChatGPT Canvas
ChatGPT canvas, OpenAI’s newest writing tool, and the first major update to ChatGPT’s visual interface since OpenAI launched the LLM two years ago. Canvas promises to help writers strike the perfect balance between AI ingenuity and human oversight. Rather than simply spitting out text in a back and forth chat, it opens up an interactive full-screen interface in another window, where you and ChatGPT can refine ideas together. Unlike the old chat format, canvas keeps track of your creative journey and updates with your refinements within the window.
When using canvas, there is a “Suggest Edits” section that appears on the right and allows you to tweak a single sentence or rewrite entire sections without leaving the page. The options include:
- Suggest Edits: ChatGPT offers inline suggestions and feedback.
- Adjust the Length: Edits the document length to be shorter or longer.
- Change Reading Level: Adjusts the reading level, from Kindergarten to Graduate School.
- Add Final Polish: Checks for grammar, clarity, and consistency.
- Add Emojis: Adds relevant emojis for emphasis and color.
In a recent article by Cezary Gesikowski, “How To Write With AI Without Sounding Like AI” he uses the article itself as an experiment, showing a play-by-play of his process to demonstrate the capabilities of ChatGPT canvas. He demonstrates how AI can work as a co-writer that listens, challenges, and refines ideas in real time. With each editing tool, from suggesting edits to adjusting length and polishing text, he explores how AI can elevate writing while still keeping the human touch.
However, Gesikowski also points out that the canvas interface isn’t without flaws. While the tool offers helpful suggestions, it still falls into common AI pitfalls like overly formal prose, clichéd phrases, and structural predictability. He also expresses frustration with the lack of seamless version control, and laments the lack of a “Revert to original” button and better edit tracking.
The Future of Content Lies Between Man and Machine
This experiment, like so many of my own with this interface, and generative AI in general, shows us that AI is a tool, not an artisan. The real value of AI comes from thoughtful human guidance, rather than blind reliance. The key lies in collaboration: using AI not as a crutch, but as a partner to enhance creativity, emulate voice, and inspire new ideas.
As stated by OpenAI on the Canvas product page: “Making AI more useful and accessible requires rethinking how we interact with it.” While there is no doubt that AI can enhance and expedite our writing, there’s no substitute for humans. The depth of our experience, our singular yet strange instincts, humor, and perspectives are what make writing resonate with readers, and will always be ours.
Grace Patterson
A proud wordsmith and wonderer, Grace is all about crafting content that resonates, captivates and inspires. With over a decade of experience in SEO copywriting and content creation, a passion for storytelling and growing fascination with generative AI, she’s a creative powerhouse within The Big Smoke team. Away from the keyboard, Grace can be found penning a poem, hanging out with her corgi, Pippin, or snapping shots of Australian wildlife and landscapes.
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