You would think that a chatbot that crawls the open web would have developed one hell of a vocabulary. But judging by our dataset of 50,000 ChatGPT responses, it has an overwhelming preference for certain words.
Then again, maybe this is a true and accurate reflection of the words humans like to use when writing stuff on the internet? Well, If only ChatGPT would also take into account that variety is the spice of life!
If you’re somebody who publishes ChatGPT-written content such as articles, guides, product descriptions etc, then you will find this ‘blacklist’ useful for humanizing AI texts.
In all honesty, the presence of common AI words in your content isn’t a big deal. What you should really pay attention to is common ChatGPT phrases, as this involves sequences of words, which makes it easier for search engines to detect AI content.
Individual words are the focus of this conversation. So, let’s find out what ChatGPT’s favorite words are.
1. Explore
Whenever ‘explore’ shows up in my ChatGPT responses, which it often does, it reinforces my suspicion that OpenAI let their chatbot spend way too much time looking at sample essays and crawling essay writing websites.
If you write a lot of articles using AI, you will probably be familiar with “In this article, we’ll explore…”.
2. Captivate
ChatGPT loves powerful verbs, and who doesn’t? They’re great for conveying an intense level of interest, but why does the chatbot favor ‘captivate’ over all the other choices that exist in the English language?
Ironically, something or someone is captivating when it exerts a powerful attraction. And, boy, is AI attracted to the word captivate.
3. Tapestry
I was going to put this one last but I hate it so much that I’m not willing to wait any longer. ChatGPT has an awful habit of using the word ‘tapestry‘ in a metaphorical sense i.e “We will guide you through the rich tapestry of Japanese culture”.
Back in the day, you would receive high praise for managing to incorporate this word into your writing. But not anymore. It’s so overused by AI that it’s become a disease.
4. Leverage
This word crops up a lot in business writing and communication, and likely features on most people’s list of corporate jargon, so the fact that ChatGPT has become a huge fan of ‘leverage’ is unsurprising—we only have ourselves to blame.
However, the really frustrating thing about ChatGPT is that it loves using the word outside of business contexts, meaning ‘leverage’ has the unique distinction of being blacklisted here and in the corporate world.
5. Embrace
By its very nature, ChatGPT is a warm and welcoming chatbot with a very positive attitude. I believe wholeheartedly the world would be in good hands if ChatGPT controlled it, because it’s always harping on about inclusivity.
Embrace change. Embrace ideas. Embrace opportunities. Embrace this. Embrace that. Embrace everything! Learn more about why the word embrace is so common.
6. Resonate
Somewhat surprised to see ‘resonate’ appear as frequently as it did in our research. It’s worth mentioning that we prompted ChatGPT to formulate long-form responses (around 500 words), and it would seem that ‘resonate’ came in handy for bringing depth to its writing and thereby adding to the word count.
If you don’t rely on ChatGPT as a text generator then I would say this particular word is the least of your worries.
7. Dynamic
“In the dynamic world of…”
Even the real world is still having a love affair with this word, hence why we’re not giving away any prizes for correctly guessing that ‘dynamic’ would make it on this list of most common ChatGPT words.
The fact that it remains a staple in our everyday vernacular means you can’t resent chatbots for jumping on it. And besides, I really do become more interested in learning about something if the word dynamic is used to describe it.
8. Testament
Another word to be on red alert for. There’s no escaping ‘testament’, as in “a testament to”. ChatGPT has definitely listened to every formal speech known to man for this word to become so deeply ingrained into its artificial neural network.
Since it carries a formal tone, you can reduce the occurrence of ‘testament’ in your ChatGPT responses by asking for an informal tone instead.
9. Delve
You know it’s serious when a chatbot wants to “delve into” a particular topic rather than explore it.
If you make demands for a piece of text to be comprehensive in coverage, then you can’t exactly blame ChatGPT for using a word like ‘delve‘, which carries connotations of pulling your sleeves up and digging into the depths of a subject matter.
Still, it’s undoubtedly a word that’s overused by AI.
10. Elevate
‘Elevate‘ is possibly the worst offender of them all. Not only does it appear in a considerable amount of ChatGPT responses, we found that it sometimes appears more than once in the same response!
This is because we asked it to write 1000s of articles, and if you have any experience with AI-written articles, you’ll know that sometimes the chatbot will write titles and headings, too. It turns out ‘elevate’ loves to hang out in a title or a heading, as well as in the paragraphs.