I came across an article today about a wild animal encounter in Poland: “Wild Video Captures Giant Bison Flattening Tourist, Refusing to Let Him Escape.”
As the title suggests, a tourist got too close to a European bison, which proceeded to knock him flat. Several nearby people acted to save the man from additional pummeling. But while reading the article, it soon became apparent it was written by AI.
I’ve touched on my gripes with AI writing before (most recently here), but it seems AI has “improved” in the sense that it seldom uses the identifying “trigger” words it once did (unwavering, intricate, commendable, innovative, meticulous, notable, and versatile).
So how did I know the above-linked article was AI?
A couple of things. First, AI loves to use similes (comparing two things using “like” or “as”). From the article: “Video shared on social media shows the bison looming over the fallen
tourist like a living wall of muscle, making it painfully clear who
controlled the situation.”
No journalist worth his salt would ever use a simile in a news article, at least nothing that florid.
Second, AI tries to tell the reader how to feel about the subject in question through the use of over-the-top adjectives. Examples from the article:
• “A tourist learned a brutal lesson…”
• “The terrifying encounter was captured on video as stunned witnesses scrambled to save the man…”
• “Without much warning, the hulking creature surged toward the man…”
• “…making it painfully clear who controlled the situation…”
• “Nature photographer Grzegorz Ryński recorded the frightening scene…”
Et cetera ad nauseam.
Now I’ll give this article one benefit of the doubt: It might well have been translated from Polish into English. Had AI not been available for this purpose, likely the subject would never have hit an American news site, so there’s that.
But sadly, AI is taking over the written word in so many categories, including journalism. Aside from concerns about factual accuracy (and I have no way of know what, if anything, was factually inaccurate about the tourist/bison piece), AI writing is just … bad. I know that as soon as I see similes and unnecessary adjectives in a so-called news article, I shut down.
Part of this aversion to AI writing is obvious. I’m a writer. I can see the handwriting on the wall for my beloved craft. I’m grateful beyond words that both my nonfiction editors (the various magazines I write for) as well as my fiction editors (Harlequin et al.) have no intention of using AI-generated content anytime soon.
I hope.
