Sometimes Experts can't tell AI Writing from Human Writing

It’s become common for writers to mock AI’s stilted, wooden, and em-dash-heavy writing style. But with some gentle coaxing, AI is much better at writing than professional writers want to admit. In one 2025 study, three top AI models were pitted against MFA-trained writers. In initial tests, expert readers clearly preferred the human writing. But once researchers fine-tuned ChatGPT on an individual author’s full body of work, the results flipped. Suddenly, experts preferred the AI’s writing and often couldn’t tell whether it came from a human or a machine. – Derek Thompson