The Cogito Brief

Good morning,

Can you tell when something was written by AI?

At first, you probably don’t think you can tell the difference. AI has gotten very good at writing emails, articles, LinkedIn posts, captions, and even short books.

Sometimes the writing is clear, organized, and useful. But other times, something feels off, even if you can’t explain exactly why. Let’s explore why down below.

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In the past few days, you’ve probably read something online that looked polished but didn’t sound like a real person wrote it. Every paragraph was the same length. The writer didn’t use contractions, so instead of saying “don’t” or “can’t,” everything sounded a little too formal. And the whole piece was filled with phrases like “in today’s digital world,” “unlock your potential,” or “this powerful tool can transform the way you work.”

Those phrases aren’t automatically bad, but when they show up over and over again, the writing starts to feel generic. It sounds like something that could have been written by anyone, which usually means it doesn’t really sound like anyone.

The biggest giveaway is usually the voice. AI writing often sounds clean, but it lacks personality. There’s usually no strong opinion, no specific story, and no sentence that feels like it could only come from that person.

It may explain the topic correctly, but it doesn’t always feel like someone actually sat down, thought about it, and wrote from their own experience. Does this sound familiar to you?

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Here’s an example.

An AI-generated sentence might say, “AI is revolutionizing the way professionals communicate in the modern workplace.”

That sentence is clear, but it also sounds like something you’ve read a hundred times before.

A more human version might say, “I spend 30 minutees rewriting 1 email because I didn’t wanna sound blunt. Now I’ll ask ChatGPT for a cleaner versoin, but I still make it sound like me before I send.” (spelling errors intended).

The second version feels more real because there’s a person inside the sentence. You can understand the situation, the problem, and the actual use case. It shows you real human output and their imperfections.

Another sign is when the structure feels too perfect…AI loves neat writing. It’ll introduce an idea, explain why it matters, list a few benefits, and end with a clean takeaway. And that’s helpful, but if every section follows that same pattern, the writing starts to feel manufactured.

Human writing is usually imperfect (unless it’s published), not messy in a bad way, but more natural. A person might pause to make a point, add a personal example, admit they’re unsure about something, or use a phrase they’d actually say out loud. Those small details are often what make writing feel believable.

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See it in action

I use AI all the time, and it’s an amazing tool when used the right way. It helps me organize my thoughts, improves my drafts, comes up with examples, and explains ideas more clearly for me.

So once you notice it, you’ll start seeing it in LinkedIn posts, cold emails, newsletters, comments, ads, and company announcements.

And that’s the point of today’s email.

AI is going to keep showing up in more of what we read, watch, and interact with online. Some of it will be helpful, but some of it will be lazy.

The more you understand the clues, the easier it becomes to tell when a real person is behind the words or when the writing was mostly generated by a machine. Learn to spot AI writing and you won’t read the internet the same way again.

Zack Wright