Dead Texts: The Botox Era of Language

One day, when generative artificial intelligence was still in its early phase, I received an email from an employee who had never managed to write a correct sentence. I was struck by the elegance of the text in her message. But when I later began receiving similar messages from other inexperienced employees, I realized that we might soon find ourselves longing for the days when texts were alive, even if they were full of natural slips.

Today, amid this tsunami of polished and perfectly crafted writing, texts adorned with every kind of cosmetic touch, Botox, liposuction, enlargement, reduction, and counterfeit authenticity, I find myself missing the life within a text.

Today’s texts move with a steady, unified rhythm, like a high-speed train on rigid tracks. No sharp corners, no incomplete sentences, no slips, no mistakes, no daring leaps between ideas. Everything is exemplary and flawless, to the point of lifeless perfection.

They dazzle with the polish of their repetitive structures: “not… but…,” “not limited to… but extends to include…,” “not only… but also….” Constructions that create excessive smoothness, where the text glides effortlessly, as if coated in fine olive oil. Where is that human text filled with friction and turns, sometimes even bumps, that force you to pause and read again?

AI-generated texts are also generous with “philosophical” phrases that sound profound but are, in reality, sterile. They often reveal what might be called superficial depth, or tired platitudes, not to mention their tendency to drift into trivial filler.

These texts are also neutral. They consistently avoid sharp attitudes or opinions. Yet behind this “neutrality” lies something else: the absence of spirit, the quiet death of the text.

Artificial intelligence portrays itself as avoiding repetition in writing. Yet, when I asked it to produce a paragraph about the importance of artificial intelligence in our lives, it gave me something along these lines:
“Artificial intelligence marks a fundamental transformation in how institutions operate. It also changes traditional ways of working and reshapes operating models.”
Consider these sentences carefully. They are not technically repetitive, and yet do they really say anything different?

Ultimately what am I trying to say?

If this sounds like a call to stop using AI, then I have failed to make my point.

What I truly mean is this: as a content creator, I find myself longing for texts that do not make me nauseous.