ChatGPT Takeover: Are People Really Starting to Mimic AI Speech?

In the latest scoop from the academic world where researchers seem to explore the most unexpected topics, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development has published findings suggesting that the widespread use of Large Language Model AIs like ChatGPT is reshaping the way we talk.

Excuse the excessive use of em dashes—I was a proponent of their sparing use way before AI came along and overdid it—as we explore this complex domain and highlight just how many of ChatGPT’s preferred terms I can seamlessly integrate into this narrative.

Who’s Influencing Whom?

During the rise of internet-based chat in the late ’90s and early 2000s, platforms like AOL Instant Messenger became the gold standard of digital communication. This era introduced us to acronyms such as LOL, LMAO, and BRB, which became ubiquitous across various forms of digital interaction.

While some of these acronyms survived into the era of texting, they rarely made the jump to spoken language. I still remember a classmate in middle school who actually said “LOL” out loud during a lesson. He was never quite viewed the same socially after that.

The Max Planck Institute for Human Development’s report indicates that certain words are frequently used by LLM AIs like ChatGPT. Some of these include words such as delve, adept, meticulous, realm, intricate, and underscore.

These words have become telltale signs of AI-generated content, and the research specifically looks at how their use in spoken language has increased alongside the growing use of AI technologies.

Essentially, the study discovered that the more people interact with AIs, the more they start to adopt the AIs’ favorite vocabulary in their everyday conversations.

Is ChatGPT to Blame?

TechRadar’s Eric Hal Schwartz pointed out that other tech-driven phenomena have also infiltrated our spoken English, such as prefixing phrases with “hashtag” to denote, well, pretty much anything.

Thanks to Twitter, when someone uses “hashtag” in conversation, it’s typically done with a sense of irony and self-awareness, acknowledging the awkwardness of bringing online slang into the real world.

If you’re curious, take a look at the full report. It’s a brief nine-page read but packed with the kind of academic jargon you might expect, along with a few meticulous insights that are worth discovering.