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Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by danabramov on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:35AM (#47921386)
"But here's the thing"

Is it really so hard to write your articles by yourself? The blandest tone imaginable, all the usual LLM tells in the sentence structure. You are polluting HN and the broader internet by posting this publicly.

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by tonhe on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:39AM (#47921432)
Honestly... I think I've been reading too much AI content, because I 100% wrote that. I do use AI to help make outlines and gather thoughts. But the Article was written by me.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by leoedin on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:53AM (#47921590)
Did you do any kind of AI assisted proofreading or grammar? So much of the structure of the article screams AI.

Stuff like this:

> Each one of these, on its own, is just a bug. Together, they’re a culture.

And the headings starting with "The"

AI seems to have adopted a style reminiscent of startup marketers circa 2020 - really simple, lots of one liner quips and far too much incredulity about minor things. Now we've come full circle!

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by tonhe on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:58AM (#47921673)
I do usually do a pass through Grammarly, and there are some times when I ask AI for help getting my point across. But I always try to change what they write into something I feel I would say.

I'm the first to say I'm not the best writer...

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by thinkingemote on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:58AM (#47922517)
> I always try to change what they write into something I feel I would say.

Or is this also true: "I don't change what a LLM writes so long as it doesn't seem like something I would write"

It's just like vibe coding it's the new normal. We don't notice our own unique voices when writing. But as a collective we do notice LLM voices.

Submissions are different than comments in HN rules - don't worry about it.

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by tonyedgecombe on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:02AM (#47921737)
Don’t take too much from these comments. HN has an unrelentingly negative tone.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by danabramov on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:56AM (#47921650)
If you're being honest, I apologize. I find it a bit difficult to believe but maybe it's really that the style is everywhere now. Partially it's sentence pattern cliches:

>Not just sell. Not just ship. Use.

>The honest read ... The hopeful read ...

>The grumbling isn’t about features. It’s about the texture of using the products.

>Yes, Apple Silicon is incredible. Yes, the Watch saved lives. Yes, the iPhone got better cameras

There's also bizarre not-quite-landing uncanny metaphors that LLMs love to do:

>Today's Apple ships friction and treats it like background radiation.

>The texture changed.

>And the rot follows that exact line.

If you're surrounded by this kind of writing, it may be good to get other inspirations. It's bad!

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by rawoke083600 on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:18AM (#47921990)
English is not my first language, although I am ok with it, whenever I write I always pump it through an AI first with a prompt of "Make it better English", especially if its a business email with English speaking clients.

I enjoyed your article and shared it on my family-geek-whatsapp group

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by Bishonen88 on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:57AM (#47921666)
13x 'not ' found in that article. That's what AI's love to write.

This article on the other hand has 1: https://routerjockey.com/introducing-graphiant-the-future-of...

I don't mind either way, but reading through the Tim Cook one without opening the comments on HN, I was 99.9% sure I'm reading AI.

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by prmoustache on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:10AM (#47921849)
The good old "this clearly photoshopped" of the 2020's era.

LLM's got their inspiration from popular sources written by humans. Now humans are exposed to LLM on repeat basis every day. It looks only normal that writing done with or without LLMs tend to converge to the same style.

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by kwertyoowiyop on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:52AM (#47921583)
“Here’s the thing” is also a longtime cliche in podcasts, from the before-times when ChatGPT didn’t yet exist.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by rawoke083600 on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:20AM (#47922014)
Or "It turns out..." Somehow it just bugs me, and I'm usually so laidback
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by an0malous on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:38AM (#47921412)
It’s futile, the Internet as we knew it is over. The Great Enshittification of the West is well past the halfway point.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by poszlem on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:39AM (#47922242)
of the West?
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by christophilus on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:40AM (#47921439)
That is a thing may humans say, though. Doesn’t mean this is AI slop.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by cubefox on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:47AM (#47921513)
There are several other LLM smells in that article.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by mwigdahl on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:54AM (#47921612)
The author just responded to say that the article is not an LLM product.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by cubefox on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:15AM (#47921949)
There are other people who noticed the LLM smells as well.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by Forgeties79 on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:40AM (#47921440)
Writing well is hard but unfortunately people like taking shortcuts and making it our problem
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by pfdietz on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:38AM (#47921419)
That's an AI slop tell, isn't it?

I wonder if AI is going to drive certain idioms into extinction (aside from being used by AI).

Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by bee_rider on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:55AM (#47921614)
I don’t think there are AI slop tells anymore. Humans have been reading AI slop for a couple years now, so it plausible enough that any one person will have picked up a couple AI-like phrases.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by swyx on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:55AM (#47921618)
oh my god it finally happened, a downvoted danabramov comment
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by NooneAtAll3 on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:59AM (#47921689)
if you cry wolf enough times, people finally wake up
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by throw1234567891 on Monday April 27, 2026 @09:47AM (#47921509)
This moaning is so fucking boring. Yeah, so what. For what we know this moan can be just some random openclaw instance digging for karma. I come here for discussion, not to read 50% “AI slop” comments.
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by rawoke083600 on Monday April 27, 2026 @10:21AM (#47922031)
Agreed ! So what
Re:Tim Cook Is Leaving. Good by throw1234567891 on Monday April 27, 2026 @04:14PM (#47926735)
and I’ve been to Hastings, and I’ve been to Brighton, I’ve been to Eastbourne too