Indirectly Speaking

“To achieve style, begin by affecting none.”
― E.B. White, The Elements of Style

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I should start by saying that I do not have anything against artificial intelligence (AI); I am not a Luddite. If anything, I tend to welcome new technologies into our daily lives.

On the other hand, like many people, I have an instinctive reaction to fake things, like artificial sweeteners or mustaches, and it is a negative one.

That said, one article that caught my eye recently reported that certain words and phrases are starting to pop up everywhere from social media posts to news articles to academic publications. The author suggested that this might be an indication of the increasing use of ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs).

The words in question include “delves”, “showcasing”, “underscores”, “pivotal”, “realm” and “meticulous”. And oh yeah — tapestry.

It should be noted that these are all perfectly fine words when used with discretion; it is when they are overused that the problems arise.

And what are those problems? Overuse induces a cluttered feeling, confusion, awkwardness, boredom, the sense that one may be in the presence of a writer who is, shall we say it, pretentious. Or, you now might say, robotic.

Alas, those overusing AI in their writing clearly never mastered the lessons in the brief but classic volume co-authored by E.B. White and William Strunk, Jr., called “The Elements of Style.”

To quote this guide, which should be on every writer’s desk:

“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.”

Well put.

HEADLINES:

• Nasrallah's killing reveals depth of Israel's penetration of Hezbollah (Reuters)

• Another senior Hezbollah commander, Ali Karki, confirmed killed in Friday airstrike (The Hill)

• Hurricane Helene leaves 'biblical devastation' in North Carolina (BBC)

• How Helene became the near-perfect storm to bring widespread destruction across the South (AP)

• Numbers show Vance-Walz vice-presidential debate could change the course of the election (Independent)

• Trump escalates harsh rhetoric against immigrants, Harris (Reuters)

• Kamala Harris for President (New Yorker)

• Harris and Trump Are Neck and Neck in Michigan and Wisconsin, Polls Find (NYT)

• Israel Has Called Iran’s Bluff (Atlantic)

• The Pentagon says it wants to prevent Iran from spreading the conflict in the Middle East (NPR)

• What I found on the secretive tropical island they don't want you to see (BBC)

• OpenAI Is Shattering Big Tech's Promises of a Better World (Bloomberg)

• The far right is using AI to sell Hitler to a new generation (WP)

• Troubling Report Finds Millions Of Americans Forced To Make Ends Meet By Getting Up And Going To Work Every Day (The Onion)