AI content isn’t the problem. Publishing soulless slop is. Here’s how to inject your voice and originality into every AI-assisted post and the prompt that saves you from sounding like everyone else.
Thank you for pointing out that Google consistently ranks personal opinion. It’s the reason why we keep seeing Reddit, LinkedIn, medium and similar content on SERPs
As someone who hasn’t really been using AI to write that much for the reasons you mentioned, I’ve been pondering whether I’m missing out and how I should be using it beyond research. This has been a helpful read, will give the prompt a try!
Thanks Dounia. Once you stop expecting it to write for you and start using it to think with you, the unlock is wild. It’s a writing partner, not a ghostwriter.
Hi Martin - I agree. I write with ChatGPT and Claude a lot. I have a “Dervan” voice doc that is based on my first book. I’ve found Claude (and ChatGPT to some extent) have improved my writing.
Thanks Paul. I love that you've built a "Dervan" doc. That is exactly how you keep your fingerprints on every line. AI is brilliant at heavy lifting (drafts, research, grammar fixes). But the key is feeding it your quirks, your stories, your voice. That's what separates something readers scroll past from something they bookmark. I love the consistency across your social posts and Substack.
In a sea of sameness, the distinction you made between AI-generated vs AI-assisted is really welcome. What I’d add is that behind this “AI problem” in writing is often just weak thinking. If you don’t have a clear point of view or something real to say, AI only makes that more obvious. So it’s not always a writing issue, it’s a thinking one.
I’ve spent a lot of time getting AI to learn my tone, style, and the kind of structure I like, but I care too much about what I publish to leave it all to a tool. It never quite captures where I want ideas to linger, what to cut, or how the pacing should feel. So I still draft manually, but I always bring AI in to support, especially to pressure-test my arguments or point out the mess in my thinking.
Also, just tested your prompt on my last post, and I loved it. I'm deep in the prompt game myself, so I’m always collecting solid ones like this
P.S. On the other hand, there was a study I found a while ago (lost it since, but from what I remember it was mentioned in an article by @Ethan Mollick) where they tested whether people could correctly identify what text was written by AI vs. by a human. They had to score the pieces, and more often than not, people got it wrong. They actually rated the AI-generated content higher and assumed most of the time that it was written by a human. So even though there’s a lot of repulsion toward AI-generated content (as you mentioned 52%), turns out we’re still pretty bad at spotting it.
Hey, thanks for the feedback, and I'm really happy you liked the prompt. Totally agree with your points. AI can write, but it can’t think for you. The sharper your thinking, the better the output.
I have been coaching businesses since 1997. Here is my substack link to subscribe for free and learn. I’ll subscribe back 💯%https://thebusinesscoach.substack.com/
Thank you for pointing out that Google consistently ranks personal opinion. It’s the reason why we keep seeing Reddit, LinkedIn, medium and similar content on SERPs
Yes, Google doesn't penalise AI-assist content; it penalizes content that has no insight, perspective, or personality.
Keep killing these sick thumbnails!
you like them?
Yea, they're awesome!
As someone who hasn’t really been using AI to write that much for the reasons you mentioned, I’ve been pondering whether I’m missing out and how I should be using it beyond research. This has been a helpful read, will give the prompt a try!
Thanks Dounia. Once you stop expecting it to write for you and start using it to think with you, the unlock is wild. It’s a writing partner, not a ghostwriter.
Hi Martin - I agree. I write with ChatGPT and Claude a lot. I have a “Dervan” voice doc that is based on my first book. I’ve found Claude (and ChatGPT to some extent) have improved my writing.
Thanks Paul. I love that you've built a "Dervan" doc. That is exactly how you keep your fingerprints on every line. AI is brilliant at heavy lifting (drafts, research, grammar fixes). But the key is feeding it your quirks, your stories, your voice. That's what separates something readers scroll past from something they bookmark. I love the consistency across your social posts and Substack.
Happy to see more AI criticism. AI is great and it sucks.
💯 it’s amazing but it’s also super dumb.
In a sea of sameness, the distinction you made between AI-generated vs AI-assisted is really welcome. What I’d add is that behind this “AI problem” in writing is often just weak thinking. If you don’t have a clear point of view or something real to say, AI only makes that more obvious. So it’s not always a writing issue, it’s a thinking one.
I’ve spent a lot of time getting AI to learn my tone, style, and the kind of structure I like, but I care too much about what I publish to leave it all to a tool. It never quite captures where I want ideas to linger, what to cut, or how the pacing should feel. So I still draft manually, but I always bring AI in to support, especially to pressure-test my arguments or point out the mess in my thinking.
Also, just tested your prompt on my last post, and I loved it. I'm deep in the prompt game myself, so I’m always collecting solid ones like this
P.S. On the other hand, there was a study I found a while ago (lost it since, but from what I remember it was mentioned in an article by @Ethan Mollick) where they tested whether people could correctly identify what text was written by AI vs. by a human. They had to score the pieces, and more often than not, people got it wrong. They actually rated the AI-generated content higher and assumed most of the time that it was written by a human. So even though there’s a lot of repulsion toward AI-generated content (as you mentioned 52%), turns out we’re still pretty bad at spotting it.
Hey, thanks for the feedback, and I'm really happy you liked the prompt. Totally agree with your points. AI can write, but it can’t think for you. The sharper your thinking, the better the output.
Business
I have been coaching businesses since 1997. Here is my substack link to subscribe for free and learn. I’ll subscribe back 💯%https://thebusinesscoach.substack.com/