ChatGPT’s latest stylistic quirk is sinister, infuriating – and absolutely everywhere | Stuart Heritage

The Rise of the ‘It’s Not X, It’s Y’ AI Epidemic: How Chatbots Are Rewriting Our Language

If you’ve never seen Jim Carrey’s 2007 psychological thriller The Number 23, consider yourself lucky. The film follows a man whose obsession with seeing the number 23 everywhere drives him to madness. I used to think it was ridiculous—until I realized I’m living my own version of it. Except my number 23 isn’t a number at all. It’s a phrase: “It’s not X, it’s Y.”

This seemingly innocuous construction has become the linguistic equivalent of a virus, infecting everything from social media posts to Peloton classes to TV show dialogue. Once you notice it, you can’t unsee it. It’s everywhere, and it’s driving me—well, not quite bonkers, but certainly annoyed enough to write 1,200 words about it.

The AI Connection: More Than Just a Coincidence

The “It’s not X, it’s Y” phenomenon isn’t just a coincidence—it’s a hallmark of AI-generated content. This rhetorical device has become so synonymous with lazy chatbot writing that whenever I encounter it, my brain immediately assumes I’m dealing with a datacenter rather than a human being.

Take ChatGPT, for instance. No matter how specific or mundane your prompt, this AI will find a way to sneak this construction into its response. Ask it about adding ham to your pasta, and you’ll get something like: “Ham doesn’t just taste good—it makes everything else taste better.” Inquire about chasing bees in your garden, and you’ll hear: “Bees aren’t stupid—they’re hyper-specialized.” It’s as if the AI has been programmed to turn every simple statement into an overwrought epiphany.

From Mad Men to Machine Learning

The phrase “It’s not X, it’s Y” predates ChatGPT, of course. In a classic Mad Men episode, Don Draper pitches a watch by saying, “It’s not a timepiece, it’s a conversation piece.” A decade ago, I marveled at Draper’s linguistic elegance. Now, I can’t watch that scene without imagining a chatbot spitting out the line between daytime scotches.

This construction has become such a red flag for AI-generated content that it’s altered how I consume media. When I hear an instructor at Peloton bark out a variation of “this isn’t X, it’s Y,” or when a TV character does the same, I find myself deducting points from their human authenticity score. It’s not fair, perhaps, but it’s a sign of the times we live in.

The Broader AI Language Epidemic

“It’s not X, it’s Y” is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to AI’s linguistic fingerprints. There are other telltale signs that content might have been generated by a machine:

Vague Intensifiers: If you see something described as “quietly powerful” or “deeply transformative,” your spidey-senses should be tingling. These soft intensifiers are AI favorites, adding gravitas without specificity.

Em-dash Overuse: ChatGPT has a particular fondness for em-dashes, using them to create dramatic pauses and connections between ideas. I’m guilty of this too, but I like to think I have the excuse of being human.

Corporate Jargon: AI loves phrases like “synergistic solutions,” “holistic approaches,” and “paradigm shifts.” If a piece of content reads like it was written by a marketing robot from 1995, there’s a good chance it actually was.

The Personal Toll: Hypervigilance and Self-Doubt

This epidemic has seeped into my subconscious to the point where I find myself internally narrating my life in AI-speak. “This isn’t a cup of tea,” I’ll think to myself, “it’s a precious respite.” “That isn’t a window, it’s a portal to a new way of thinking.” “This isn’t food poisoning, it’s a quietly powerful reminder not to eat raw chicken off the kitchen floor.”

It’s exhausting. Now, whenever I sit down to write, I waste precious mental energy trying to avoid any variation of “it’s not X, it’s Y,” terrified that you’ll think I’m using AI. It’s much harder than it looks. I literally used it four paragraphs ago when I referred to dealing with a “datacenter.” The irony is not lost on me.

The Future of AI Language: Evolution or Revolution?

The good news is that AI evolves quickly. The “it’s not X, it’s Y” construction will likely become a thing of the past soon enough, replaced by new stylistic quirks that are no less insidious but perhaps harder to detect. The bad news is that we’ll probably spend the next few years learning to spot those too.

Until then, I’ll continue my vigil, scanning every piece of content for signs of artificial authorship. And if this hypervigilance drives me as mad as Jim Carrey’s character in The Number 23, well, at least I’ll have plenty of company. After all, we’re all living in the age of AI now—whether we like it or not.

Tags: AI language patterns, ChatGPT tells, linguistic AI fingerprints, “It’s not X, it’s Y” epidemic, AI-generated content detection, digital communication trends, chatbot writing styles, artificial intelligence in media, language evolution technology, human vs AI writing

Viral Sentences:
“It’s not a trend, it’s a lifestyle shift.”
“The small wins aren’t just moments, they’re the majority of your life.”
“This isn’t X, it’s Y.”
“It’s not a timepiece, it’s a conversation piece.”
“Bees aren’t stupid, they’re hyper-specialized.”
“Ham doesn’t just taste good, it makes everything else taste better.”
“This isn’t incarceration, it’s a quiet reset.”
“It’s not a cup of tea, it’s a precious respite.”
“That isn’t a window, it’s a portal to a new way of thinking.”
“This isn’t food poisoning, it’s a quietly powerful reminder.”

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