Once you start noticing the rhetorical device 'it's not X, it's Y' as you scroll online, you can't fail to register it. I've become so hypervigilant that it has seeped into my subconscious thoughts, much like the protagonist of Jim Carrey's 2007 psychological thriller The Number 23, who sees the number 23 everywhere.
This phrase is a telltale sign of AI-generated content, particularly from ChatGPT. No matter the prompt, the AI tends to sneak in constructions like 'Self-improvement isn't a trend, it's a lifestyle shift' or 'Bees aren't stupid – they're hyper-specialised'. It has become shorthand for lazy AI slop, making me tense up whenever I encounter it, assuming I'm dealing with a datacentre rather than a human.
Other linguistic gimmicks from ChatGPT include vague soft intensifiers like 'quietly powerful' or 'deeply transformative', and overuse of em-dashes. But none haunt me as much as 'it's not X, it's Y'. It has infiltrated my own thoughts: 'This isn't a cup of tea, it's a precious respite.' Now I waste energy avoiding the phrase in my writing to prove I'm human.
AI evolves quickly, and this quirk may soon be replaced by a new, harder-to-detect stylistic tic. But for now, the phrase is everywhere, and it's infuriating.
