Can You Spot AI Writing?
Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 2:51 pm
An interesting article in the New Yorker about the current abilities and limitations of AI. The author is also a novelist, and AI studied some of her works before trying to write sentences in her style. Two of these sentences were written by the novelist and journalist, and the other two by AI. Try to guess which is which.
1. In journalism, we talk about the importance of writing for a mass audience—the adage that sticks with me is to write so that a third-grader can understand, though I can’t remember where I picked that up.
2. She asked me if artists used the term ecosystem. I said we don’t use that particular business metaphor, but only because we haven’t raised a Series A. In principle, it’s the same.
3. “I miss kindergarten,” I said. We were in the car. K was in the backseat. “I miss being young enough to crawl under the tables without anyone caring.”
4. I told the women, when we were all back on-screen, that we should decide together where to publish their stories. Did we want to put them on the organization’s website? Did we want to print little pamphlets or zines and leave them in local establishments?
1. In journalism, we talk about the importance of writing for a mass audience—the adage that sticks with me is to write so that a third-grader can understand, though I can’t remember where I picked that up.
2. She asked me if artists used the term ecosystem. I said we don’t use that particular business metaphor, but only because we haven’t raised a Series A. In principle, it’s the same.
3. “I miss kindergarten,” I said. We were in the car. K was in the backseat. “I miss being young enough to crawl under the tables without anyone caring.”
4. I told the women, when we were all back on-screen, that we should decide together where to publish their stories. Did we want to put them on the organization’s website? Did we want to print little pamphlets or zines and leave them in local establishments?
Spoiler
Sentences 1 and 4 were written by the human author. Sentences 2 and 3 were "written" by AI.
