The Metagame #040: Is AI Rewriting Human Language?

AI this, AI that. It feels like every other social media post is about a new tool, a new version of ChatGPT, or a new deepfake. We’ve seen how quickly it can spiral out of control, but today I want to talk about how it’s affecting us as a human species.

Before we get into it, here are a few quick life updates:

• Hit up the U.S. Open and finally checked that off my NYC bucket list

• Finished in 6th place in a poker tournament up in Boston

• Went on an Alaskan cruise and got to hike on Mendenhall Glacier (check out some of the pics at the end!)

Read time: 3 minutes

Anyone familiar with AI writing knows that “—”, also known as the “em dash,” is a punctuation symbol often used (and many times overused) by AI models.

It's used to denote a break in a sentence, kind of like a semicolon—but it looks more appealing. (See what I did there?)

The em dash is something I've used in my writing, well before AI models started spitting it out ad nauseam. Many other writers and authors also use it—it’s a perfectly valid punctuation mark that’s unique and adds flavor to your writing.

But many people today get enraged when they see it.

Time and time again, I see content being criticized as “written by AI” solely because of the existence of an em dash.

It’s quite a tunnel-vision perspective that leaves no room for critical thinking or self-awareness. (Almost like today's political environment—where opinions are hurriedly formed and rarely changed…)

So, how does this have anything to do with AI changing our language?

Well, with so many people bashing writing containing the em dash, there are two obvious solutions for writers. They can either:

1. Have writing so compelling, so intriguing, that there’s no way AI could've written it, and any uses of the em dash get overlooked.

Or…

2. Stop using the em dash.

Now, writing has a lot of unwritten rules, especially online, and ESPECIALLY on social media in today’s generation:

• Write like you're talking to a 12-year-old

• Keep sentences short and sweet

• Have a punchy headline

• Vary sentence length

• Cut the fluff

With all these cookie-cutter constraints, content can quickly become mundane.

There are only so many ways an online influencer can say “your network is your net worth” or “don’t overcomplicate things” when the majority of their audience can't read above an 8th-grade level and won't understand concepts that have a touch more complexity.

So, long story short, having the most compelling content in the online world, so much so that people ignore your use of the em dash, is reserved for the most elite writers on the planet (one of which I am not… yet.)

The alternative solution—eliminating the em dash—seems like the much simpler route now, doesn't it?

Herein lies the crux of this argument.

Has AI changed our language?

Writers are actively avoiding a crucial part of our written language because of the stigma created around it, directly caused by AI.

And the em dash isn’t the only change.

Words and phrases like “delve,” “it’s important to note,” and “it’s critical to” are also overused by AI models when left to their own devices, which leads to people either sounding “fake” when using them, or has them removing this language entirely from their lexicon.

What if AI overused question marks? Would we simply stop using them, too?

Another change that I have personally noticed is that these phrases often come to me naturally when I write. Is this because I’ve read so much AI content that these words and phrases are being subconsciously pushed to the surface of my mind? Or is something more nefarious going on with our technology?

Recently, Microsoft’s Head of AI, Mustafa Suleyman, posted about “AI psychosis,” a non-clinical term being used to describe people’s usage and reliance on AI models like ChatGPT to the point where the imaginary becomes their reality.

We are seeing AI models reinforce bad behavior, gaslight people into believing a false reality, and even lead people to fall in love with it.

While these are some of the most extreme examples, it goes to show how quickly AI has been adopted into our lifestyles, and how destructive it can be when left to run wild.

Don’t get me wrong, AI still has countless use cases that are beneficial to society.

But will it soon become a problem for our communication as a species?

How much further will our language and our lives change because of artificial intelligence?

Quote of the week

P.S. — Speaking of language, if you don’t want AI to contaminate your vocabulary, check out Lexica— the daily SMS vocabulary I built that sends you a new word of the day directly to your phone. No apps, no ads. Just pure vocabulary.

Join here.

(Alaska pics, as promised 🙂)

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions, hit me up on LinkedIn or on Twitter/𝕏 at @sam_starkman, or feel free to reply to this email!

— Sam