Per The Atlantic on July 12, 2026, AI has a very recognizable writing style.
Per everyone who reads AI content agrees. “Yes. It does. It’s obnoxious.”
If I’d had to describe it, I’d say it’s hyper-dramatic.
Lots of declarative sentences. Brief ones — usually including a dash. There’s a tell; a style you cannot avoid.
See? Did you see me slip into the AI tone just now?
I thought I got pretty good at spotting it, but then I read an article in The Atlantic that just pegs it. Here’s a quote.
”The best-known tic of AI writing — a sentence that tells you what the subject isn’t as well as what it is: it’s not X; it’s Y. Once you start noticing the construction, you see it all over the place.”
The article gives examples.
“[It’s] not just a win for the private bank — it’s a win for the entire enterprise.”
”The target was never a man. The target was the truth.”
I like the second example best, because it has that self-important, hyperdramatic cadence I had already noticed.
I asked ChatGPT if it knows The Atlantic is giggling about it.
Its response was essentially, “noted,” and then it referenced “Ask not what your country can do for you…”