Marvelous examination of how to spot 2026-era AI writing, via the Economist - AI likes long sentences with less punctuation; “and” is its most overused word - relatedly, lists of three things, which drives up use of "and" as well - polysyllabic adjectives: “significant”, “increasingly” - scientific jargon ("rate-limiting," “parameter”) - nominalizations (making nouns from verbs: eg, “expansion” from “expand”) - ofc, everyone's favorite: "it's not X, it's Y"
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Replying to @DKThomp
I mean, now compare the AI with a legal brief, published academic article, or college textbook.

Aug 3, 2026 · 2:24 PM UTC

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The depressing thing is that most people think that AI uses lots of em dashes — and some of us — like this writer — have used them since forever.
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The em dash is a sign of a sophisticated mind whose owner can hold more than one idea in their head at a time — and respects the reader enough to trust them to keep up. Never surrender!
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