How to be different from AI

AI is becoming pervasive. I spend a fair amount of time looking at content and can spot it easily now. What I see is that AI uses a readability system called Flesch-Kincaid (or something similar) to formulate the thoughts that it presents. The Flesch-Kincaid system shortens words, reduces jargon and shortens sentences as well. It was developed for schools and the US military to get the necessary understanding across as effectively as possible to appropriate audiences.

Appropriate audiences? People are different across groups. For instance, a child aged 12 has different information needs from an adult aged 30. Flesch-Kincaid is a handy guideline for adapting style and complexity of ideas for different people.

My problem is that I trained myself to write using Flesch-Kincaid as well. To give you an idea, I prefer US grade-level 12 writing in releases and position pieces. That covers just about everyone who needs to understand the content of a press release. The problem is that I run the risk of sounding like an AI.

To get around the situation I have had to look at what and how I write. If you are facing the same circumstance, here’s a four-point guideline.

Firstly, use your own insights. AI will present a generic aggregate of knowledge that is often not specific to the information that is needed. I have said this fairly often: use AI only as a baseline search. Once you have the response to your prompt, go through it in depth, delete unnecessary ideas and add your own insights and takes to the material. Once you have done that rewrite in your own voice or the voice of the person you are writing for.

Secondly, show empathy for your reader. If you are asking someone to spend four to six minutes to read a piece, ensure that the piece returns value. Readers will want a solution to a problem, not a monologue that rehashes the problem. If you understand the reader as a person and the problems they face, you should be able to present possible solutions. You need to particularly understand the reader’s culture and environment. Write a very brief summary of the problem and solution in the lead paragraph to draw the reader in.

Thirdly, pattern your style. Use the same style you would use to talk to a friend or a colleague. Avoid dry, formal language. If you have a catch phrase, all the better. Don’t be afraid to be idiosyncratic. This simple tactic is also a method to counter the potential of becoming ‘fake news’. If people don’t recognize the way you speak, they can tell that it is not you speaking.

Fourth, if writing for someone else, get to know the person and the way the person speaks, the way that the person uses words. If there are phrases, expressions and terms that crop up regularly repeat them in the piece that you are writing. For instance, I wrote for someone who regularly used the term ‘quantum’ in reference to finance. I repeated that characteristic word in almost everything I wrote for him. It was identifiable as the thoughts that he directed and endorsed.

This can be extended to scripted communication, for instance reels. The video is in some way easier because the visual brings verity to the message, but the language is still important.

Practice makes perfect. It is challenging at the outset, but after a while it becomes second nature. The existence of AI should not mean that all communication sounds like an AI. Use AI with a light touch and ensure that you sound (and think) like a human.