AI or just asinine?

AI is nothing if not subtle. Just kidding. Still, when it's imitating human writing, it doesn't shout from the rooftops that this isn't written by a person, and to the naked eye it does a pretty good job of simulating a living, breathing author. If you ask AI for an example of writing that seems like it's written by AI, it's just AI imitating its own perception of how AI differs from humans, since it seems like it's a perfect simulacrum to itself. Not that AI has opinions, but the personality of the chatbots certainly has a point of view, even if AI itself doesn't. In actual books, the signs are usually pretty subtle. For example: Not understanding that a deck usually is in a back yard. It doesn't have a door, because if it had a door, it would be a screened-in porch. (This is ripped from a real-life example that I'll talk about soon.) The sex stuff is especially funny, since AI doesn't seem to realize which actions you can and can't exactly ...

First book I'm taking a look at is Ali Parker's Him Again, a single dad book that's cute and charming enough. But it doesn't take long to notice what might be an AI influence. First clue, besides releasing 11 books in 9 months - which of course could just mean a healthy stable of ghostwriters, or writing a phenomenal number of words per day. Not impossible. But here's the cover photo, that gives a preview as to what we'll find inside:   That's about as convincing as Brad Pitt telling me he loves me from the hospital. But it's the substance of the book - or lack of substance - that makes me think it's AI. A group of friends looks for seats for a wedding ceremony. There are aisles and "sides" for the bride and groom. And yet the outdoor reception area is filling up fast. Are people skipping the ceremony in favor of eating pigs in blankets? Seems especially faux pas since you can see the reception area from the ceremony seating. Cups at the en...

I'm only a newly minted romance reader, but I've noticed a strange trend lately. It's as if writers have been body-snatched and replaced by Potemkin humans: convincing on the surface, but with nothing behind it holding it up. Some of them read like an alien from another planet trying to teach you to drive, even though they've never seen a car before. Why could this be? Hmm, I'm stumped. Let's ask our friendly neighborhood chatbot. Genre Tropes and Expectations Mass Production Market Algorithms Simplified Prose AI Influence Overemphasis on Formula Slick. I like how it just slipped that one right in there, like some lettuce in a Dagwood-sized bs club sandwich. Like, "I doubt it's this, but I'll mention it anyway." Bad romance novels from 2000 sound very different from bad romance novels of 2025. And while I don't want to impugn any hardworking, dedicated writers, I do want to take a closer look at a few of the absurd, sometimes funny signs I...