‘This Matters’: Researchers Identify Thousands of New Tells in AI Writing
A new study by marketing firm Graphite has identified approximately 13,000 words and phrases that serve as indicators of AI-generated text. The research highlights specific linguistic patterns unique to models like Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 and OpenAI's Astra, noting that certain phrases appear significantly more often in AI outputs than in human writing. While Claude Opus 5.5 is trending toward more human-like text by reducing previous giveaways, OpenAI's Astra model is becoming less indistinguishable from human writing.
- ▪Graphite's study identified around 13,000 words and phrases that likely indicate AI-generated content.
- ▪The phrase 'this matters' is the most significant tell for Claude Opus 5.5, appearing 116 times more frequently than in human samples.
- ▪Claude Opus 5.5 uses em dashes 99% less often than its predecessor, Opus 5, suggesting a trend toward more human-like writing.
- ▪OpenAI's Astra model is trending toward less human-like writing, with the phrase 'does not establish' appearing 275 times more often than in Claude's outputs.
- ▪The study notes that as AI models correct for one linguistic tell, new ones often emerge, creating a dynamic challenge for detection.
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| Publication time | Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:45:32 +0000 |
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Much ado has been made of “AI tells” in writing—so much so that an entire micro-economy of so-called AI detectors has cropped up and is somehow worth millions of dollars. A new study from Graphite (a marketing company, so you know, take it with a grain of salt) has identified about 13,000 words and phrases that it believes are likely indicators that an AI model produced text—and warns that in at least one case, the tells might be getting harder to…
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