Take a look at these two paragraphs:

The development of the internet has greatly facilitated people's lives, but it has also brought the risk of privacy leaks. Therefore, netizens should pay attention to protecting their personal information when online to avoid being exploited by criminals.

I started blogging online in 2012, when people's awareness of privacy was still very weak. Because I used a weak password, my blog account was hacked, and all my posts were deleted! Looking back now, I really regret not enabling two-step verification sooner.

What's the difference?

That's right, the first paragraph is clearly written by AI, while the second is clearly written by a human.

In the past two years, when we read an article, our first reaction is no longer whether the article is well-written, but whether it was written by AI.

Over time, articles with an AI feel have become known as "AI-flavored." It's like a glass of watered-down cola; it may look similar, but the taste is just wrong.

Today, let's talk about what exactly this "AI flavor" is and how it's generated.

What exactly is "AI flavor"?

"AI flavor" is essentially a kind of "industrialized trace" in text. Just like mass-produced goods always have certain standardized characteristics, AI-generated text also bears obvious marks of "mass production": overly standard wording, overly restrained emotions, overly neat logic, and overly comprehensive content.

Specifically, it has the following characteristics:

1. Overly standardized or flamboyant language style

AI-generated text often has a sense of impeccable perfection. Its vocabulary is standardized, its sentence structure rigorous, its grammar perfect, and even its punctuation meticulous. It is precisely this over-standardization that causes the text to lose the flexibility and individuality common in human writing.

For example, AI's writing is filled with bureaucratic phrases like "in addition," "moreover," and "it is worth noting," making it read like a document cobbled together by "a group of very polite robots." It also favors certain grand and sophisticated vocabulary; research has found that words like "camaraderie" and "tapestry" appear hundreds of times more frequently in AI text than in human text. This ostentatious and formulaic use of language makes the writing appear both professional and empty.

This is also the most common "AI flavor."

2. Neutral and objective to the point of being "devoid of emotion"

When designing large language models, AI companies typically program AI to maintain a neutral and objective stance to ensure the "safety" and "harmlessness" of the content generated.

Unlike human writing, which is based on understanding and emotion, AI writing is essentially a game of probability. Whenever AI chooses the next word, it calculates the probability distribution of all possible words and then selects the "safest" one.

It avoids strong personal opinions and emotional coloring, and there's no sarcasm, self-deprecation, or humor. Like an extremely cautious investor who only buys the most stable blue-chip stocks. The result? Stable returns, but never any surprises.

To use the great human writer Shakespeare as an analogy:

* Human Shakespeare: "To be, or not to be, that is the question."

* AI version of Shakespeare: "To be, or not to be, that is the question—that is, to ask oneself what is to be, or not to be; that is to ask oneself what is to be, or not to be; that is to ask oneself what is to be, or not to be."

Clear, powerless, and uninteresting writing is also a kind of "AI flavor."

3. Clear Logic but Rigid Formula

When organizing article structure, AI often follows fixed "formulas." The most common is the three-part structure of "introduction-body-conclusion," regardless of whether the topic requires it, as if it were completing a set essay. Especially in Chinese writing, the structure of "firstly…secondly…finally…" has almost become standard for AI.

The "knowledge" of large language models comes entirely from the data we provide. Behind this lies an easily overlooked fact: a vast amount of existing written material in human society consists of serious content such as official documents, news reports, legal documents, and academic papers. Currently, most AI training data comes from relatively formal and standardized texts such as news articles, encyclopedia entries, and academic papers on the internet.

While we don't excessively read this type of text in our daily lives, AI doesn't realize this. It simply treats this massive amount of data as a normal human writing template, and by learning too much from it, everything it says sounds like official documents.

The mechanical, bureaucratic feel of AI is also a significant element of its "AI flavor."

4. Broad but not refined "information collage"

Finally, and most importantly, AI lacks genuine life experience. It doesn't understand emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness, nor can it perceive the complexity and subtlety of the world. Everything it does is merely imitation and calculation based on data.

Therefore, while AI can describe a scene, it cannot infuse it with genuine emotion; while it can tell a story, it cannot imbue it with profound meaning. The text it generates is ultimately just a soulless "high-quality imitation."

The content generated by AI also gives us a feeling of being comprehensive yet superficial—this is another aspect of AI's "flavor." It lists many points but rarely elaborates on them, let alone offers any sharp or original viewpoints.

Behind this "correct but meaningless statement" lies AI's strategy of repeating popular consensus to avoid errors and controversy.

AI-generated writing is essentially industrialized production.

The presence of an "AI flavor" reflects both the limitations of current AI technology and provides an opportunity to re-examine the value of human creativity. AI can be an efficient writing assistant, helping us organize information and construct frameworks, but what truly gives life and soul to words is always the uniquely human emotion, experience, and thought.

From the perspective of productivity development, AI-generated writing is essentially industrialized production; human writing, on the other hand, is a craft.

Like a car production line, each process has strict standard operating procedures, and the error of each part is controlled to the millimeter level. Quality inspectors ensure that every car meets factory standards. What is the core of this system? Eliminating variation and pursuing consistency.

AI writing follows exactly this logic. Its "production line" is probabilistic calculation, its "quality inspector" is a safety mechanism, and its "standard operating procedures" are high-frequency patterns in the training data. The result? Stable output, but lacking surprises.

Human writing is completely different.

A true writer is more like a craftsman. If he's in a good mood, he might linger on a particular sentence; a strange dream he had last night might subtly shift the tone of the entire piece. Each creation is a chemical reaction of his current state, past experiences, and instant inspiration.

This is why we can always "smell" the author's essence in their writing. Hemingway's conciseness, Kafka's absurdity, Murakami's detachment—these aren't deliberate choices, but rather natural expressions of their unique life experiences.

Perhaps in the future, with the advancement of technology, the "AI flavor" will gradually fade. But at least for now, let us cherish and enjoy that unique "human flavor" that originates from the human heart.