newsletter Readers can spot AI-written content faster than an ant to a picnic watermelon. And it’s not always the classic long dashes giving it away.
It’s something the Secret Service figured out a long time ago about catching counterfeiters, and it hands you a simple, repeatable way to keep your newsletter something your readers want to read.
Earlier this year I sold a Nissan van on Facebook Marketplace. That was a business-to-business transaction, so there was little to no risk of accepting payments as phony as a $3 bill.
But on smaller items, unknowingly accepting counterfeit money can be a problem.
And if you don’t stand pat on your newsletter content, there can be an unfortunate connection between it and counterfeit money.
For instance, when accepting cash for a Facebook Marketplace item, you can buy counterfeit ID pens or “money pens.”
Swipe the cash with the marker, and if the paper isn’t authentic? It will leave a black or gray mark.
But there’s no magic marker to identify content that’s not authentic.
To be honest, you don’t need one. Counterfeit content is spotted faster than a college boy on a free pizza.
At least it is for your reader.
If you need help, Grammarly has an article on the many ways to spot content that’s not authentic… or let’s call it what it is… AI-written.
Everybody knows AI puts those annoying long dashes in every other sentence. That’s one dead giveaway someone tried a shortcut: a personal voice with AI.
There are other telltale signs.
It’ll write in a steady tone. It’ll write with repetitive phrasing. It’ll write with short look-alike sentences like I just did.
What about using AI to write, then strip out all its quirks?
Grammarly’s guide can seem useful for that, but there’s still a big problem.
As these checklists grow, you begin the endless road of identifying AI’s quirky telltale traits just so you can take them out again.
And that resembles Michael Jackson’s moonwalk. Looks like you’re moving forward, but really you’re going backward.
Plus, AI learns from published content. So the more AI content is out there, the more AI writes content based on its quirky telltale signs.
To quote Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, “Stop the madness.”
We already said people can tell when content has been written by AI. That also means they can tell when you didn’t write it.
It becomes as obvious as a $3 bill you didn’t write the content.
When it comes to that $3 bill, did you know this?
The Secret Service trains people to identify counterfeit money.
I know, from protecting the president of the United States to training for counterfeit money identification?
But here’s the gotcha. They don’t train people to identify counterfeit money at all. Not one bit.
They only train people to know what authentic currency looks like. Everything else doesn’t matter.
Think about it. Learning every new way a bill can be counterfeited is an endless task. It leaves the Secret Service vulnerable when a new attempt comes along. They’d be letting counterfeiters dictate their focus.
Instead, they took charge by training only what is authentic, period.
The same principle applies to writing your newsletter.
And that right there is the goose that laid your golden content.
What you should train for is writing in your authentic voice
Just like nothing replaces legal currency, nothing replaces your authentic, non-counterfeited newsletter.
Even if you have documents in your voice for AI to use as a guide, that won’t stop AI from stacking up its quirks and exposing the fact that AI wrote it, not you.
After all, it’s a machine with “artificial” intelligence.
Your readers aren’t machines, and they do have intelligence.
When people consume enough of your content or have met you personally, they can spot authenticity just like the Secret Service can spot legal tender. And when it’s not present? It stands out like a strap-on beard at a ZZ Top tribute band tryout.
Here’s the big picture
Just be you. If you authentically write using em dashes, then write using them. Don’t change who you are.
My natural writing includes the occasional three-sentence look-alikes. Am I going to run a finger down Grammarly’s list of AI idiosyncrasies and say, “Uh-oh. I can’t write like that anymore?”
No, because it’s how I write.
The chances of us authentically writing a newsletter with all AI’s little quirks are next to none. So don’t sweat the odd similarity.
But don’t let AI be your shortcut to being yourself. It’s not going to be you, and you certainly don’t want to be it.
Write your content yourself. Your audience will appreciate it. You’ll appreciate it, and your business will appreciate it, too.
See? An unapologetic triple look-alike sentence burst right there. But it’s authentic.
What sign tells you content has been written with AI?