What Did AI Actually Write?

You got your first text from AI. Before we move on, let's look closely — because what you just experienced reveals more about AI than any textbook.

First Impressions Are Misleading — In Both Directions

Most people have one of two reactions after their first AI text: "Wow, that's surprisingly good!" or "Hmm, that's somehow... empty." Both reactions are correct — and both are only half the truth.

AI texts have a peculiar quality: they almost always sound professional. The sentences flow, the structure is logical, the grammar is correct. That can impress — but it can also deceive. A text that sounds good is not automatically a good text.

Think of an actor playing a doctor. He wears the white coat, uses the right terminology, and seems convincing. But you wouldn't let him operate on you. AI texts are similar: they play the role of an expert without being one.

Three Things AI Does Very Well

Creating structure. AI excels at organizing information. If you have a chaotic thought, AI can turn it into a clear text with introduction, body, and conclusion. That's no small feat — many people struggle with exactly that.

Finding phrasings. Sometimes you know what you want to say, but the words are missing. AI can offer phrasings you wouldn't have come up with on your own. Not because it's smarter, but because it has seen billions of texts and knows which words often go together.

Producing variations. You need the same content in three different tones? Formal, friendly, and humorous? AI can do that in seconds. This ability is enormously useful in practice — for emails, social media posts, or product descriptions.

Three Things AI Fails At

Guaranteeing facts. This is probably the most important insight of this entire course: AI makes things up. Not deliberately, not maliciously — it simply doesn't know what's true and what isn't. If you ask AI for a company's founding year and it says "1987," that might be right — or not. It sounds convincing either way.

Experts call this "hallucination." It's not a bug that can be fixed. It's a fundamental property of the technology. AI predicts the most likely next word — and sometimes the most likely word is wrong.

Depth and originality. AI produces the average of the internet. If you request an article about healthy eating, you'll get the same tips found on a thousand websites: more vegetables, less sugar, drink plenty of water. Correct, but not surprising. Real depth — an unexpected perspective, a personal connection, a controversial thesis — rarely comes from AI.

Having your voice. The text sounds professional, but it doesn't sound like you. It has no character, no edges, no personal touch. If you place the AI text next to something you wrote yourself, you'll feel the difference immediately — even if the AI text is "better" phrased.

The Trust Test

Here's a simple exercise you can apply to every AI text from now on. Ask yourself three questions:

1. Would I sign this? Not "is the text grammatically correct," but: Does it say something I would say myself? If not — what exactly bothers me?

2. Can I verify the facts? If the text claims that "studies show" or "experts say" — which studies? Which experts? If you can't check, that's a warning sign.

3. Who bears the risk? A poem for yourself — no risk. An email to your boss — medium risk. A contract or medical text — high risk. The higher the risk, the more you need to verify.

These three questions aren't distrust. They are professional handling of a tool that is impressive and unreliable at the same time.

What This Means for You

You don't have to distrust AI. You don't have to believe everything either. The sweet spot is in between: use AI as a drafting assistant that provides structure, phrasings, and variations — then use your own knowledge, judgment, and voice to make the text something real.

That's not a limitation. That's the real strength of collaboration between human and AI.