Do we need a term (probably German) for the anxiety that one's work might look like it was generated by machines?
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Do we need a term (probably German) for the anxiety that one's work might look like it was generated by machines?
I heard from someone near me today that to make your work appear less like it was machine-generated the emerging rule is that you should not use the 'em dash', nor write in paragraphs, rather one text block.
I have prior heard another say that text summaries at the end of an article are seen as indication of genAI use, as is text free of typos.
Has anyone heard of other references to behaviour-change born of such anxiety?
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@JulianOliver Do you mean "Künstlicheintellgenzerzeugungsangst"?
@nico That could definitely be a candidate! Danke sehr.
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I heard from someone near me today that to make your work appear less like it was machine-generated the emerging rule is that you should not use the 'em dash', nor write in paragraphs, rather one text block.
I have prior heard another say that text summaries at the end of an article are seen as indication of genAI use, as is text free of typos.
Has anyone heard of other references to behaviour-change born of such anxiety?
@JulianOliver
I just finished a ~30-page white-paper, and afterwards ran it through Claude asking whether there were any constructions or anything that it would flag as AI-written. It caught a couple of things which were a little stilted... I re-wrote them in more direct language. So, yeah, I'd certainly rather nobody thought that my writing was AI-generated, and I'm willing to do a little extra work to try to make sure of that. -
@nico That could definitely be a candidate! Danke sehr.
Sieht-hoffentlich-nicht-wie-KI-erzeugt-aus
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I heard from someone near me today that to make your work appear less like it was machine-generated the emerging rule is that you should not use the 'em dash', nor write in paragraphs, rather one text block.
I have prior heard another say that text summaries at the end of an article are seen as indication of genAI use, as is text free of typos.
Has anyone heard of other references to behaviour-change born of such anxiety?
@JulianOliver still related to em-dash but friend of mine told me that she'd rather rewrite sentences in a way she can drop em-dash at all.
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Sieht-hoffentlich-nicht-wie-KI-erzeugt-aus
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Do we need a term (probably German) for the anxiety that one's work might look like it was generated by machines?
@JulianOliver AI imposter syndrome
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I heard from someone near me today that to make your work appear less like it was machine-generated the emerging rule is that you should not use the 'em dash', nor write in paragraphs, rather one text block.
I have prior heard another say that text summaries at the end of an article are seen as indication of genAI use, as is text free of typos.
Has anyone heard of other references to behaviour-change born of such anxiety?
@JulianOliver the construction that goes "it isn't only X, it's also Y" is something i've come to suspect as a mark of ai-generated stuff, in both english and romanian
in a more abstract sense, semanticly homogenous language is how i explain ai content to myself. people can (and sometimes do) draw paraleles between semantic domains based on subjective interpretarion. this is metonymy. a LLM can't replicate metonymy, only simile (metaphor) ("x is like y")
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@JulianOliver the construction that goes "it isn't only X, it's also Y" is something i've come to suspect as a mark of ai-generated stuff, in both english and romanian
in a more abstract sense, semanticly homogenous language is how i explain ai content to myself. people can (and sometimes do) draw paraleles between semantic domains based on subjective interpretarion. this is metonymy. a LLM can't replicate metonymy, only simile (metaphor) ("x is like y")
@catileptic What an insightful take, thank you. I had not considered this as a marker/indicator. This makes sense.
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Sieht-hoffentlich-nicht-wie-KI-erzeugt-aus
@wikinaut @JulianOliver Nice one
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Do we need a term (probably German) for the anxiety that one's work might look like it was generated by machines?
@JulianOliver "Wurde nicht von einem stochastischen Papagei verfasst"
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@JulianOliver Do you mean "Künstlicheintellgenzerzeugungsangst"?
Künstlicheintelligenzerzeugnisverwechslungsgefahrsangst would be more precise

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@JulianOliver "Wurde nicht von einem stochastischen Papagei verfasst"
@themadhatter True! We don't hear much about the parrot anymore. We should bring it back -- a useful metaphor.
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Do we need a term (probably German) for the anxiety that one's work might look like it was generated by machines?
@JulianOliver Freteration: The wash of anxiety one feels thinking about presenting something you just created and people may think it was AI generated.
EG: Jill sat in sweat as the gallery owner looked over her art. Freteration overtook her thinking her paintings may look like they were made by MidJourney.
Origin: Fret: intransitive verb (frettˈing; frettˈed)
To vex oneself
To worryWorrai: The anxiety one feels when people think what you just created may be AI generated. A lexical blend of worry and AI.
EG: While waiting to give his speech, John was filled with worrai thinking his professor would think he used AI instead of writing it himself.
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I heard from someone near me today that to make your work appear less like it was machine-generated the emerging rule is that you should not use the 'em dash', nor write in paragraphs, rather one text block.
I have prior heard another say that text summaries at the end of an article are seen as indication of genAI use, as is text free of typos.
Has anyone heard of other references to behaviour-change born of such anxiety?
@JulianOliver Maybe. But making your writing worse (or even different) because AI does something seems foolish to me.
Of course, em-dashes can be misused or overused, as can almost anything else. But they are not intrinsically bad and are sometimes essential. Many great writers use them frequently.
On the other hand, LLMs love emoji, and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reducing their use.
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@JulianOliver Maybe. But making your writing worse (or even different) because AI does something seems foolish to me.
Of course, em-dashes can be misused or overused, as can almost anything else. But they are not intrinsically bad and are sometimes essential. Many great writers use them frequently.
On the other hand, LLMs love emoji, and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from reducing their use.
@njr In agreement. I am opposed to any behavioural modification as a function of this would-be anxiety, just interested in it as a socio-technical symptom of our times.
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@JulianOliver Freteration: The wash of anxiety one feels thinking about presenting something you just created and people may think it was AI generated.
EG: Jill sat in sweat as the gallery owner looked over her art. Freteration overtook her thinking her paintings may look like they were made by MidJourney.
Origin: Fret: intransitive verb (frettˈing; frettˈed)
To vex oneself
To worryWorrai: The anxiety one feels when people think what you just created may be AI generated. A lexical blend of worry and AI.
EG: While waiting to give his speech, John was filled with worrai thinking his professor would think he used AI instead of writing it himself.
@R_3_T_3_C_H 'Worrai' is surely a candidate! Sharp.
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Do we need a term (probably German) for the anxiety that one's work might look like it was generated by machines?
@JulianOliver Slopschmerz, causing a lot of Kummerspeck.
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@JulianOliver Slopschmerz, causing a lot of Kummerspeck.
@jpoesen The moment I read your reply I found myself saying "damn I miss German".
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I heard from someone near me today that to make your work appear less like it was machine-generated the emerging rule is that you should not use the 'em dash', nor write in paragraphs, rather one text block.
I have prior heard another say that text summaries at the end of an article are seen as indication of genAI use, as is text free of typos.
Has anyone heard of other references to behaviour-change born of such anxiety?
This article shared by @slackline has some strongly-related fight in it https://www.theringer.com/2025/08/20/pop-culture/em-dash-use-ai-artificial-intelligence-chatgpt-google-gemini