How to Humanize Your AI Writing in 10 Steps

👋 Hey there, I’m Alberto! Each week, I publish long-form AI analysis covering culture, philosophy, and business for The Algorithmic Bridge.

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TL;DR for this guide

This is a practical guide to humanize AI writing in 10 steps. Each step includes a name for the mistake, an explanation, a prompt to fix it (when applicable), and an example scene with a changelog (plus a PDF!). Steps 0-5 are prompts that fix 85% of AI writing (what AI does that shouldn’t). Steps 6-10 are human moves AI can’t do but should. Reading time: 25 minutes. Application time: 5 minutes.

Intro: AI writing, bad writing, good writing

I probably dislike AI writing more than you, which is not the same as saying that I dislike human-like writing that was created with the help of an AI.

You might think that’s a contradiction, but there’s a subtle difference: I have nothing against AI-assisted writing in principle—although I’d prefer if people were somewhat literate—but I can’t stand AI writing that I can tell is AI.

This nice how-to guide—it took many weeks to put together!—is intended to help you guys avoid the typical pitfalls that make your AI text sound like the opposite of human writing. Maybe you don’t think you need this, but you do.

Some of you will call this guide a betrayal: how can I be in favor of human writing and provide this invaluable resource for others to conceal AI writing under a human facade? Fair. But I disagree. The reason is simple: AI writing will exist whether or not it exists disguised.

The latest estimates suggest that AI-generated writing already amounts to more than half of all articles being published today on the web. Substack and Medium are populated by bots and slop (whether human or AI is a different question). And yet, seldom do people notice; when they do, they shrug. Why fight the trend?

With this guide, I aim to turn this problem into a win-win situation.

People who will write with AI regardless can improve their output (and maybe, if they apply themselves, learn a thing or two along the way), whereas people who dislike AI writing will no longer encounter it. After all, if you can’t tell whether it’s AI, ...