When you rely on an LLM to write for you and then present a melange of your work and the LLM's work without attribution, it makes it impossible for others to usefully interpret what you published.
Are you saying that e.g. securely attached children perform better in school, because you know that in your capacity as a educated psychologist? Or did an LLM write that based on its best guess? None of your readers can tell. So how should they know whether it's true?
kg · 2h ago
Where is it disclosed that this post was written by an LLM in part or in whole? I don't see it in the linked article
mquander · 2h ago
It's very stylistically visible. For example, it's covered in `it's not just X -- it's Y" phrasings that are default LLM house style.
denismi · 1h ago
The em-dash everywhere. The constant bullet-lists with bolded titles. The emoji-annotated asides for emphasis.
eadmund · 1h ago
There is nothing wrong with em-dashes — they are awesome.
Definition lists are built into HTML.
Pull quotes have been a common style for at least thirty years.
I have no idea if the article was LLM-written or not. It didn’t have that smell for me, but perhaps I just missed it.
xianshou · 1h ago
Came to point out that this is transparently LLM-authored, was not disappointed. The signs:
- neatly formatted lists with cute bolded titles (lower-casing this one just for that)
- ubiquitous subtitles like "Mental Health as Infrastructure" that only a committee would come up with
- emojis preceding every statement: "[sprout emoji] Every action and every word is a vote for who they are becoming"
- em-dash AND "it isn't X, it's Y", even in the same sentence: "Love isn't a feeling you wait to have—it's a series of actions you choose to take."
Could pick more, but I'll just say I'm 80% confident this is GPT-5 without thinking turned on.
eadmund · 1h ago
• Neatly-formatted lists Neatness could be a sign of a machine, or it could be a sign of a diligent human author.
• Subtitles only a committee would come up with That seems to me like a matter of opinion and taste — and we all have different tastes.
• Emojis preceding every statement I counted three emoji pull quotes in a multi-page document. I suppose it could be an LLM, but it could also just be a nice style.
• Em-dashes and ‘it isn’t X, it’s Y' This is why I posted in the first place, and downvoted you. There is nothing wrong with em-dashes — I love them. I use them a lot. Frankly, I probably overuse them. I’ve used them since I was a kid: I am going to use them — and over-use them — as long as I live. As for ‘Love isn’t a feeling you wait to have — it’s a series of actions you choose to take,’ that just seems like normal English to me.
It’s very possible in 2025 that the article was LLM-written, or written by a man and cleaned up by an LLM, or written by a man and proofread by an LLM, or written by a man. It does not have the stilted feel of most LLM works to me, but I might just miss it.
An em-dash isn’t an indicator of an LLM — it’s a sign of someone who discovered typography early.
ryanar · 2h ago
thanks for posting, very prescient topic for me. I happen to have inadvertently done these things without knowing it. Perhaps this is instinctual?
Are you saying that e.g. securely attached children perform better in school, because you know that in your capacity as a educated psychologist? Or did an LLM write that based on its best guess? None of your readers can tell. So how should they know whether it's true?
Definition lists are built into HTML.
Pull quotes have been a common style for at least thirty years.
I have no idea if the article was LLM-written or not. It didn’t have that smell for me, but perhaps I just missed it.
- neatly formatted lists with cute bolded titles (lower-casing this one just for that)
- ubiquitous subtitles like "Mental Health as Infrastructure" that only a committee would come up with
- emojis preceding every statement: "[sprout emoji] Every action and every word is a vote for who they are becoming"
- em-dash AND "it isn't X, it's Y", even in the same sentence: "Love isn't a feeling you wait to have—it's a series of actions you choose to take."
Could pick more, but I'll just say I'm 80% confident this is GPT-5 without thinking turned on.
• Subtitles only a committee would come up with That seems to me like a matter of opinion and taste — and we all have different tastes.
• Emojis preceding every statement I counted three emoji pull quotes in a multi-page document. I suppose it could be an LLM, but it could also just be a nice style.
• Em-dashes and ‘it isn’t X, it’s Y' This is why I posted in the first place, and downvoted you. There is nothing wrong with em-dashes — I love them. I use them a lot. Frankly, I probably overuse them. I’ve used them since I was a kid: I am going to use them — and over-use them — as long as I live. As for ‘Love isn’t a feeling you wait to have — it’s a series of actions you choose to take,’ that just seems like normal English to me.
It’s very possible in 2025 that the article was LLM-written, or written by a man and cleaned up by an LLM, or written by a man and proofread by an LLM, or written by a man. It does not have the stilted feel of most LLM works to me, but I might just miss it.
An em-dash isn’t an indicator of an LLM — it’s a sign of someone who discovered typography early.