When I tell people I'm a [content] writer, I always get the same question: "are you worried about AI?"

My answer is always the same: "not for now."

AI isn't worrying me (yet) for two key reasons. One, the main one, search engines (including Google) are actively penalizing low-effort content.

This means you can use AI to help you write, but you're going to have to tweak it manually, because if you simply copy-paste it, your article is not gonna do well.

Second, AI is a s**t writer.

AI-written content is drivel that wouldn't get past any editor worth their salt, and there are obvious giveaways to tell whether it was written by AI.

• It sounds unnatural and overpolished

AI content doesn't sound natural. It doesn't have a tone, it doesn't have a personality, it sounds flat and overpolished.

Delve, tapestry, multifaceted, underscores, vibrant, testament, and pivotal - these are all words a normal person wouldn't use unless they're trying to show off, in which case they're also s**t writers, in my view, because the rule of thumb is you should never use words you wouldn't actually use in real life.

Humans use slang, the tone carries a 'voice', and often it carries a bias. AI sounds neutral, excessively formal, clinical, and very repetitive.

• 'It doesn't just sound bad, it completely changes the meaning of the word terrible'

For reasons that are unclear, AI loves the structure above.

"It's not just this, it reinvents that."

AI always relies on a binary 'not just X but also Y' structure.

"It’s not just a tool; it’s a paradigm shift."

And no one would use paradigm anyway, by the way.

• excessive and unnecessary cliffhangers

Humans are perfectly capable of setting up a big reveal with cliffhangers, but they generally use one or two, not ten.

Imagine taking the story of a successful businessperson or actor, and imagine starting the story with the person's failures.

Human writers list one or two failures and then transition towards successes. AI exaggerates the part about failure, giving excessive details - details that people often know.

I can point you to an example.

I've seen several AI-written Instagram captions about Jeremy Clarkson's exit from Top Gear before the Grand Tour.

Those captions generally provide unnecessary details about what happened (because we all know by now) and paint a much worse picture about Clarkson's status when the whole 'fracas' exploded.

"One punch almost ended his career," that sounds like AI. Because we know it's not true now, and most people felt it wasn't true then, and it's excessive. It didn't feel like that at the time. Everyone knew they'd find a new platform. Everyone knew Top Gear without them wouldn't be as successful.

I digress.

Anyway, anything else you think is a huge AI giveaway? Let me know in the comments.