As AI makes its way into the mainstream, people who write a lot (emails, presentations, documents) are trying chatbots like ChatGPT to assist.
But while technology has advanced, it still has a long way to go, and sometimes, some words and sentence structures just don’t seem quite right.
And according to an AI expert, there is one word that clearly proves that your email was written by ChatGPT.
Related: ChatGPT: What is it and how does it work?
Paul Graham, the co-founder of startup accelerator company Y Combinator, posted on X this week that the use of the word “delve” is a red flag that the work was most likely written by ChatGPT.
The point here is not that I don’t like “delve”, although I do, but that it’s a sign that the text was written by ChatGPT. pic.twitter.com/2i3GUgynuL
— Paul Graham (@paulg) April 7, 2024
He referenced a graph by researcher Philip Shapira showing that use of the word “delve” from 1990 to 2024 in published documents and articles jumped to nearly 18,000 instances in the past four years.
Another data tool, AI Phrase Finder, listed “delve” as the #1 most common word. 9 (out of 10) used by ChatGPT.
“If you require a piece of text to be thorough in coverage, then you really can’t blame ChatGPT for using a word like ‘delve,’ which carries with it the connotation of rolling up your sleeves and digging into the depths of a topic,” he said AI Phrase Finder. “However, it is undoubtedly a word overused by AI.”
Related: The 7-Step ChatGPT Formula for Maximum Productivity and Profitability
According to Merriam-Webster, delve is a verb meaning “to make a careful and detailed search for information” and “to dig into or work with.”